M&. Secretary Pepys 



EXTRACTS FROM HIS DIARY 




New York 
wynkoop & sherwood 

i 8 Beekman Stpeet 



1867 








(.lass J J/A T1 L 



Book^_ 



PRESENTED BY 



— § 



Mr. Secretary Pepys 



EXTRACTS FROM HIS DIARY 



ALLAN GRANT 



New York 
wynkoop & sherwood 

1 8 Beekman Street 
1867 



"DA ^4 7 
/P4 As 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S67, by JAMES 
GRANT WILSON, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the 
United States for the Southern District of New York. 



Gift 
Dr.H-N. Fowler 
M ay 16 193 4 



BRADSTREET PRESS. 






WIPE OF A DISTINGUISHED UNITED STATES SENATOR, 

A CHRISTIAN LADY, ALIKE BEAUTTFUL IN MINI) AND PERSON, 

WIIO MINISTERED TO A WOUNDED BROTHER, 

STRICKEN UNTO DEATII ON TITE FATAL FIELD OF FREDERICKSBURG, 

CTfjts UtttU Valumz is Betucateti, 

BY HER MOST GRATEFUL AND ATTACHED FRIEND, 
THE AUTHOR. 



So long they read in those antiquities, 

That how the time was fled they quite forgate. 

Edmund Spenser. 



They are the 
Registers, the chronicles of the age 
They were made in, and speak the truth of history. 

Shakerly Marmion. 



An exact Diary is a window into his heart that maketh it; and 
therefore pity it is that any should look therein but either the friends 
of the party, or such ingenious foes as will not (especially in things 
doubtful) make conjectural comments to his disgrace. 

Prynne's Remarks on Archbishop Laud. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 



AMONG the many glimpses into the life 
and manners of the olden time, to the 
reflecting and philosophic mind few are so 
deeply interesting as the daily memoranda of 
eminent men long since passed from the 
stage ; those patient and disinterested benefac- 
tors of posterity, who have at stated seasons 
stolen away from the troublous and anarchical 
scenes of busy existence, and in the lull of 
strife, and it may be of suffering and bloodshed, 
have daily devoted a few sacred and precious 
moments to photographing the stirring events 
of the day — records that fill us no less with 
wonder at the uniqueness and beauty of their 
coloring, than with admiration of the stern 
truth and fidelity of the incidents detailed. 

(5) 



6 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

With the Diarist there is no stage room for 
loftiness of port or histrionic swagger — he 
indulges in no flatulent outbreak of patriot- 
ism no yeasty rodomontade of national glory. 
His heroes are ushered on the stage with no 
alarums of jubilant trumpets — no roll of mar- 
tial drums ; but at a chosen hour, you tranquilly 
sit down with him as with a beloved old crony 
of long standing, and you listen to his calm and 
brief story, mayhap of some solemn life narra- 
tive of sorrow and vicissitude, which he quietly 
details to you with the steady flow of a clear 
but deep stream, which often murmurs but never 
brawls, and to whose soothing music you unre- 
luctantly surrender for the time all the regrets 
of the past, all the anxieties of the future. 

The historian may narrate events deeply 
riveting in their nature — matters of great 
pith and moment germain to the public weal 
and prosperity of the time. lie may balance 
nice questions of statesmanship, unravel knotty 
skeins of shrewd diplomacy, or successfully sift 
conflicting evidence on recondite points of inter- 
national law. But he lives remote from the 
men and things he would describe, must write 
from the authority of those who have preceded 
him, and can offer no better warrant for his 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 7 

averments than what he finds already written 
by those who may have as slight foundation for 
their facts as he has for his personal knowledge 
of their veracity. 

Now, the value of all this historical merit is 
heavily overborne by the diarist who has not 
only had an intimate knowledge of the actors in 
his drama, but has, in all probability, himself 
been one of the dramatis personal, and taken 
either a leading or subordinate part throughout 
the entire representation. Moreover, the minute 
accuracy of the stijjjjling (to use an artistic term), 
breadth of handling, and truth of detail exem- 
plified by our best Diarists, incontestably prove 
the painters to have been as faithful delineators 
as they were careful observers of the scenes 
they portray — scenes " all which they saw, 
and part of which they were." History, which 
a wag asserts to mean his story, is now manu- 
factured in this country not by the book, but by 
the bale ; and so prolific have these historical 
scribblers become, that we may soon expect to 
see histories sold by the box, like India rubber 
shoes or pegged boots and brogans. Again, 
like true cannibals, these bookmakers have at 
length come to live upon each other, and carve, 
serve up, and rehash each other's inanities ad 



8 MR, SECRETARY PEPYS. 

infinitum, and all to earn an ephemeral reputa- 
tion and turn an honest penny into two pennies 
not just so honest. 

A writer of this tribe may be false in his 
premises, fallacious in his reasoning, and pre- 
posterous in his conclusions ; he may, in the esti- 
mation of all sensible and intelligent men, be 
at best a mere historical chiffonniere — a resur- 
rectionist of forgotten facts and thrice demolished 
fictions — a renovator of defunct chronicles and 
all the rubbish garnered up by learned associa- 
tions styling themselves " Societies." With 
wondrous industry and persevering diligence he 
rakes these disjecta membra together — these 
sweepings of a study — sifts, riddles, and re- 
adjusts to suit the taste of the time, and of a 
given accumulation of such ill-considered trifles 
he makes a book, names it a History, and, with 
a crow much akin to a cackle, he calls upon 
the world to wonder and worship. Many may 
think the book a good book, but to your true 
student and scholar it has a blague second- 
hand look about it, something like an old seedy 
black coat which some colored pusson of your 
acquaintance has re-buttoned, sponged, and 
" goosed up," till it looks almost as good as 
new. To historians such as Schlosser, Macau- 



MB. SECRETARY PEPYS. 9 

lay, Thiers, Carlyle, Prescott, Bancroft, and 
Motley, we willingly doff the literary beaver, 
and as cheerfully render homage due to genius, 1 
learning, character, and respectability ; our feud 
is only with the ignoble pack of paltry imita- 
tors, who perseveringly foist their counterfeit 
wares on a long-suffering and patient public — 
curs of whose historical yelpings the world has 
long been sick and weary. Let us now turn to 
worthy old Samuel Pepys, a bird of quite a 
different feather. 

Many of our readers may not even have 
heard of Samuel Pepys — Pepys, the son of a 
London tailor, and the prince of journalists, 
who has embalmed for posterity such a world 
of blended gossip and historical fact, that for 
many years has proved to the student of English 
history a perfect treasure-trove, which we feel 
assured said posterity will not willingly let die. 

Apart from his Diary all the information 
xeiative to his family and personal history is 
♦meagre and unsatisfactory. From the recent , 
discovery of an old manuscript journal belong- / 
ing to the great uncle of the Journalist, we are i 
enabled to trace his family to a remote period. 
This curious book was found by the Rev. John 
Dale, vicar of Bolney, Sussex, England, in 



10 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

March, 1852, in an ancient chest in his parish 
church, and contains, inter alia^ the following 
entry : " A Noate written out of an ould Booke 
of my uncle William Pepys." " William Pepys 
died at Cotterham, 10 H. 8, was brought up by 
the Abbat of Crowland in Huntingdonshire, and 
he was borne in Dunbar in Scotland, a gentle- 
man whom the said Abbat did make his bayliffe 
of all his lands in Cambridgeshire and placed 
him in Cottinham. Which William aforesaid 
had three sons, Thomas, John and William, to 
whom Margaret was mother naurallie, all of 
whom left issue." Samuel Pepys, grandson of 
Thomas just mentioned, was born at Bampton, 
Huntingdonshire, on the 23d day of February, 
1632-3, received his education at St. Paul's 
School, and at Magdalen College, Cambridge. 
The only record of his college career is the 
following : " October 21, 1G53. Pepys and Hind 
were solemnly admonished by myself and Mr. 
Hill, for being scandalously overserved with 
drink the night before. This was done in the 
presence of all the Fellows then resident. John 
Wood, Reg'r." Two years later he married Eliz- 
abeth St. Michael, whose father, a Frenchman, 
accompanied Queen Henrietta Maria to England 
as one of her suite. The marriage seems to 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 11 

have been a sufficiently happy one, though 
nothing could easily be more rash. He was 
but twenty-three, and his wife fifteen, and neither 
of them had property. How the London tailor's 
son came to be related to so distinguished a 
person as Sir Edward Montagu, we are not 
told : but so it was ; and in the house of that 
distinguished officer the young couple found an 
asylum, and to the connection thus accidentally 
formed Pepys owed his successful career. 

Being patronized by his cousin, Sir Edward, 
afterwards the first Earl of Sandwich, he 
accompanied him as secretary in the fleet that 
was sent to bring back Charles the Second. 
Pepys was in high favor with the monarch, 
and introduced many important improvements 
into the navy. On the accession of William 
and Mary, he published his u Memoirs " re- 
lating to the navy — a valuable work. Inde- 
pendent of his great skill and experience in 
naval affairs, he was well informed in history, 
painting, sculpture, architecture, and kindred 
arts. Such indeed was his reputation, that 
in 1684 he was made president of the Royal 
Society. 

But that which has most contributed to give 
an interest to the name of Pepys, of late years, 



12 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

is the recent publication of his Diary, which, 
besides illustrating his own wary and prudent 
character with so much truthfulness and naivete, 
affords a curious and instructive picture of the 
court of the merry monarch, and gives an 
interesting view of the manners and habits 
of the people at large. Living as he did in an 
eventful age, and at an era teeming and rich 
beyond measure with remarkable incidents and 
characters, it was fortunate for the world that 
Pepys undertook a task for which he was so 
admirably fitted, a task which, after all, to him 
seemed but a pleasant duty. To arrest, and as 
it were embalm, the passing characters and 
transactions of his time, and transmit them in 
all their glowing and life-like freshness of color- 
ing, was nt) mean bequest to posterity ; and 
whatever be its other claims to the ^respect and 
admiration of the reading world, as a simple 
verification of history it is invaluable. 

The celebrated John Evelyn was a brother 
diarist of Pepys : they were also old friends and 
correspondents, and to be the friend of Evelyn 
was no slight compliment to the character and 
accomplishments of Pepys ; and Collier, the au- 
thor of a Biographical Dictionary, and a con- 
temporary, in an affectionate notice of his death 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 13 

speaks of him in the following glowing terms : 
" It may be affirmed of this gentleman that he 
was with qiit exception the greatest and most 
useful minister that ever filled the same situa- 
tions in England ; the acts and registers of the 
Admiralty proving this fact beyond contradic- 
tion. The principal rules and establishments 
in present use in those offices are well known 
to have been of his introducing, and most of 
the officers serving therein since the Restora- 
tion, of his bringing up. 

He was a most studious promoter and strenu- 
ous assertor of order and discipline through all 
their dependencies. Sobriety, diligence, capaci- 
ty, loyalty, and subjection to command, were 
essentials required in all whom he advanced. 
Where any of those were found wanting, no 
interest or authority was capable of moving 
him in favor of the highest pretender, the 
royal command only excepted, of which he was 
also very watchful to prevent any undue pro- 
curements. 

Discharging his duty to his prince and coun- 
try with a religious application and perfect 
integrity, he feared no one, and courted no one, 
and neglected his own fortune. Besides this he 
was a person of universal worth, and in great 



14 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

estimation among the literati for his unbounded 
reading, his sound judgment, his great elocu- 
tion, his mastery in method, his singular curi- 
osity, and his uncommon munificence towards 
the advancement of learning, arts, and industry 
in all degrees ; to which were joined the severest 
morality of a philosopher, and all the polite 
accomplishments of a gentleman, particularly 
those of music, languages, conversation, and 
address. He assisted as one of the Barons of 
the Cinque Ports at the coronation of James 
the Second, and was a standing Governor of 
all the principal houses of charity in and about 
London, and sat at the head of many other 
honorable bodies, in divers of which, as he 
deemed their constitution and methods deserv- 
ing, he left lasting monuments of his bounty 
and patronage." 

The Diary begins at that interesting period 
subsequent to the death of Cromwell, and while 
the whole country was in a state of deep agita- 
tion, as the question of King or no King began 
to absorb the public mind. Like Alexander's 
captains, after the great Macedonian had laid 
down the burden of empire ai:: 1 existence to- 
gether, there was an ominous gathering spirit 
of sauve qui peut apparent among the parlia- 



MR. SECRETARY PEPTS. 15 

mentary generals, thaj betokened some approach- 
ing disruption in the forces under their com- 
mand. The heavy ground swell in the political 
ocean had not yet subsided, and thoughtful and 
observant men began to look with anxiety for 
the lifting up of the curtain that concealed the 
coming year, and in whose impenetrable folds 
seemed hidden events that would speedily decide 
the fate of the kingdom. The iron hand of 
Cromwell was forever at rest, but the iron rule 
and the stern despotism still remained. The. 
government of the sword had not yet lost its 
•prestige, and men still trembled as with furtive 
look and bated breath they gathered into obscure 
nooks to discuss the probable action of Monk, 
who, at the head of the forces in Scotland, now 
appeared to hold the destiny of England in his 
hand. Monk was the master-spirit among the 
military leaders of the Parliamentary army, 
talked loudly of the Commonwealth, free Par- 
liaments, and the people's right, and at York 
caned one of his officers for charging him with 
attempting the restoration of the king ; and yet 
his plans were matured to effect this very ob- 
ject, and he only staid the developments of time 
to announce to the country that its lawful mon- 
arch waited in a foreign port for its recognition 



16 ME. SECBETARY PEPYS. 

of his claims and a speedy recall to his crown 
and native country. 

Fairfax, always at heart a royalist, held back, 
and, seeming to bide his time, calmly waited for 
the coming man. Fleetwood chafed and blus- 
tered, and finally on his knees surrendered his 
commission to the speaker of the House. Such 
was the general aspect of things at the period 
at which Pepys began his Diary, and we shall 
now leave the further detail of events to him. 

Diary of Samuel Pepys. 

1659-60. 

" Blessed be God, at the end of the last year 
I was in very good health, without any sense 
of my old pain, but upon taking of cold. I 
lived in Axe Yard, having my wife and servant 
Jane, and no other in family but us three. 

The condition of the State was thus, viz. : 
the Pump, after being disturbed by my Lord 
Lambert, 1 was lately returned to sit again. 
The officers of the army are forced to yield. 

i Sufficiently known by his services as a major-general in 
the Parliament forces during- the civil war, and condemned 
as a traitor after the Restoration, but reprieved and banished 
to Guernsey, where he lived in confinement thirty years. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 17 

Lawson l lies still in the river, and Monk 2 
is with his army in Scotland. Only my Lord 
Lambert is not yet come into the Parliament, 
nor is it expected that he will, without being 
forced to it. The new Common Council of the 
city do speak very high ; and had sent to Monk, 
their sword-bearer, to acquaint him with their 
desires for a free and full Parliament, which is 
at present the desires and the hopes, and the ex- 
pectations of all ; twenty-two of the old secluded 
members having been at the House door the last 
week to demand entrance, but it was denied 
them ; and it is believed that neither they nor 
the people will be satisfied till the House be 
filled. My own private condition very hand- 
some, and esteemed rich, but indeed very poor ; 
besides my goods of my house, and my office, 
w T hich is somewhat certain. Mr. Downing 3 
master of my office. 

January 1st, (Lord's Day.) This morning 
(we living lately in the garret) I rose, put on my 
suit with great skirts, having not lately worn 

1 Sir John Lawson, who rose to the rank of an admiral, and 
greatly distinguished himself during the protectorate of Oliver 
Cromwell. 

2 George Monk, afterwards Duke of Albemarle. 

3 Afterwards Sir George Downing, son of Emmanuel Down- 
ing, a London merchant who settled in New England. 

2 



18 MB. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

any other clothes but them. Went to Mr. Gun- 
ning's chapel at Exeter House, where he made 
a very good sermon upon these words : ' That 
in the fulness of time God sent his Son, made 
of a woman,' &c. ; showing that by 4 made 
under the law ' is meant the circumcision, which 
is solemnized this day. Dined at home in the 
garret, where my wife dressed the remains of a 
turkey, and in doing it she burned her hand. I 
stayed at home the whole afternoon, looking 
over my accounts ; then went with my wife to 
my father's, and in going observed the great 
posts which the City workmen set up at the 
Conduit in Fleet Street. 

2d. Walked a great while in Westminster 
Hall, where I heard that Lambert was coming 
up to London ; that my Lord Fairfax * was in 
the head of the Irish brigade, but it was not 
certain what he would declare for. The House 
was to-day upon finishing the act for the Coun- 
cil of State, which they did ; and for the in- 
demnity of the soldiers ; and were to sit again 
thereupon in the afternoon. Great talk that 
many places had declared for a free Parlia- 

1 Thomas Lord Fairfax, generalissimo of the Parliamentary- 
forces. After the Restoration, he retired to his country-seat, 
where he lived in private till his death in 1671. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 19 

ment ; and it is believed that they will be forced 
to fill up the House with the old members. 
From the Hall I called at home, and so went to 
Mr. Crewe's (my wife she was to go to her 
father's), and Mr. Moore and I and another 
gentleman went out and drank a cup of ale 
together in the New Market, and there I eat 
some bread and cheese for my dinner. 

3d. To White Hall, where I understood that 
the Parliament had passed the act of indemnity 
for the soldiers and officers that would come in, 
in so many days, and that my Lord Lambert 
should have benefit of the said act. They had 
also voted that all vacancies in the House, by the 
death of the old members, should be filled up ; 
but those that are living shall not be called in. 

Ath. Strange the difference of men's talk. 
Some say that Lambert must of necessity yield 
up ; others, that he is very strong, and that the 
Fifth-monarchy men will stick to him, if he 
declares for a free Parliament. Chillington was 
sent yesterday to him with the note of pardon 
and indemnity from the Parliament. Went and 
walked in the Hall, where I heard that the Par- 
liament spent this day in fasting and prayer ; 
and in the afternoon came letters from the 
North, that brought certain news that my Lord 



20 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

Lambert his forces were forsaking him, and 
that he was left with only fifty horse, and that 
he did now declare for the Parliament himself; 
and that my Lord Fairfax did also rest satisfied, 
and has laid down his arms, and that what he 
had done was only to secure the country against 
my Lord Lambert his raising money and free 
quarter. I met with the clerk and quarter- 
master of my Lord's troop, and Mr. Jenkins 
showed me two bills of exchange for money to 
receive upon my Lord's and my pay. 

5th. I dined with Mr. Shepley, at my Lord's 
lodgings, upon his turkey-pie. And so to my 
office again ; where the Excise money was 
brought, and some of it told to soldiers till it 
was dark. Then I went home, after writing to 
my Lord the news that the Parliament had 
this night voted that the members that were 
discharged from sitting in the years 1648 and 
49 were duly discharged ; and that there should 
be writs issued presently for the calling of 
others in their places, and that Monk and Fair- 
fax were commanded up to town, and that the 
President Bradshaw's 1 lodgings were to be pro- 
vided for Monk at Whitehall. Then my wife 
and I, it being a great frost, went to Mrs. 

i John Bradshaw, president of the High Court of Justice. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 21 

Jem's, 1 in expectation to eat sack-posset, but 
Mr. Edward not coming, it was put off; and I 
left my wife playing at cards with her, and went 
myself to Mr. Fage, to consult concerning my 
nose, who told me it was nothing but a cold. 
Mr. Fage and I did discourse concerning public 
business ; and he told me it is true the city had 
not time enough to do much, but they are re- 
solved to shake off the soldiers ; and that un- 
less there be a free Parliament chosen, he did 
believe there are half the Common Council will 
not levy any money by order of this Parlia- 
ment. 

6th. This morning Mr. Shepley and I did 
eat our breakfast at Mrs. Harpers (my brother 
John 2 being with me) upon a cold turkey-pie 
and a goose. At my office where we paid 
money to the soldiers till one o'clock ; and I 
took my wife to my cosen Thomas Pepys, and 
found them just sat down to dinner which was 
very good ; only the venison pastry was palpa- 
ble mutton, which was not handsome." 

Very true, neither handsome nor honest, and 
making it apparent that there were shams in 
England before Carlyle's day. It also reminds 

i Jemimah, daughter of Sir Edward Montagu. 

2 John Pepys, afterwards in holy orders; died 1677. 



22 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

us of the remark of an irreverent grumbler at 
a New York boarding-house table more famed 
for its pretensions to gentility than for the 
quality or plentifulness of its viands : " Mrs. 
Jenkins, if this were not called beef steak, I 
should have taken it for fried liver." 

At the conclusion of our last extract, we left 
Pepys growling over the indignity of being 
fobbed off with mutton for vension, which was 
an unquestionably shabby transaction. This 
leads us to contrast the mode of living in that 
day and that of our present year of grace 1867. 
In relation to a dinner he gave to a select party 
of friends, or rather relations, in which he 
says, " My company was my father, my uncle 
Fenner and his two sons, Mr. Pierce, and all 
their wives, and my brother Tom," he details 
the different dishes with a gusto and precision 
which prove him to have been an ardent lover 
of good cheer. 

Here everything is plain, nutritious, and 
abundant, and utterly free from kickshaws 
and flummery of every kind — and the honest, 
wholesome simplicity of the repast is sadly at 
issue with the costly and elaborate artificiality 
of the household dinners perpetrated in the 
present day. Mrs. Pepys' dish of marrow 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 23 

bones — the leg of mutton and loin of veal — 
were beyond question super-excellent, each in 
its own way ; but the magnificent idea of the 
" three pullets, and the dozen sky-larks, all in a 
dish," was the crowing glory of the chef de 
cuisine, and must have formed a feature in the 
symposium worthy of Alexis Soyer or Pierre 
Blot in their happiest moments of inspiration. 

Then the decent propriety and English solid- 
ity of the dessert is worthy of our highest 
respect and admiration — the " great tart," the 
"neat's tongue" — ah, that neat's tongue ! 
embalmed in anchovies, " like a dish of swate 
strawberries smothered in crame," and scarcely 
to be eclipsed by those dark ruby prawns, and 
the deep red double-Gloster cheese, ever as 
grateful to the palate as it is pleasant to the 
eye. This grand family banquet sans doubt, 
was doubly enhanced by copious libations of 
stout, old, home-brewed, brown October, in big- 
bellied jugs, black jacks, and foaming flagons, 
that merrily coursed round the hospitable board, 
till the black oaken rafters rang with " Down 
with the Rump, and speedy restoration to King 
Charles!" ' 

It has frequently been remarked that whether 
a birth or a funeral takes place in a household, 



24 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

the great business of eating and drinking goes 
on with the same steady uniformity as if no such 
event haci transpired. In confirmation of this 
truth we have Pepys and his friends on more 
than one occasion holding high jinks, and enjoy- 
ing themselves with more than Spartan stoi- 
cism of mind, in times of deep anxiety and dis- 
tress — a strong evidence, by the way, of their 
good sense, and belief that there is no special 
wisdom in caring for the morrow, and that 
enough for the day is the evil thereof. 

Monk, the ephemeral Napoleon* of the day, 
having outmanoeuvred his military rivals, was 
marching on the city with his invincible bat- 
talions, the heroes of a hundred fights. The 
pay of these forces was deeply in arrear, and 
it was muttered throughout the ranks that if 
pay was not to be obtained, plunder could ; and 
they were likely to make good the threat. Let 
it be remembered, these were no carpet war- 
riors ; no trim, highly-tailored militiamen, come 
out to air their finery on parade, but men of 
iron mould and iron purpose ; Cromwell's right 
arm and right hand, that raised up and struck 
down all opposing powers at his bidding ; 
psalm-singing soldiers, who looked upon the 
day of battle as a day of certain victory, and 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 25 

who, now grown to be an army of mutinous, 
red-handed dictators, were approaching the 
metropolis of the land to right their own 
wrongs, and take justice should it chance to 
be denied them. 

This threat set prudent householders to stow 
away their valuables, burying them in cellars, 
gardens, and other by-corners, till these armed 
malcontents were amicably compromised with ; 
hence, in taking down old houses in London, it 
was a common occurrence to find money, jew- 
els, and other valuable effects, concealed in 
walls, cellars, and secret nooks throughout the 
dwelling, whose owners, in the interim, having 
died, the treasures had never been reclaimed. 
Now for a few more life-sketches from Samuel 
Pepys : — 

" IZih. Coming in the morning to my office, 
I met Mr. Fage, and took him to the Swan. 1 
He told me how T he, Haselrigge, 2 and Morley, 3 

i Fenchurch Street, London. 

2 Sir Arthur Haselrigge, Bart., of Nosely, Leicester County, 
and member of Parliament for that county ; colonel of a regi- 
ment in the Parliament army, and much esteemed by Crom- 
well. In March following he was committed to the Tower, 
where he died, January, 1660-61. He was brother-in-law to 
Lord Brooke, who was killed at Lichfield. 

s Probably Colonel Morley, Lieutenant of the Tower, whom 
Evelyn blames so strongly for not doing what Monk did. 



26 MB. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

the last night, began at my Lord Mayor's, 1 to 
exclaim against the city of London, saying that 
they had forfeited their charter^ and how the 
Chamberlain of the city did take them down, 
letting them know how much they were for- 
merly holden to the city, &c. He told me that 
Monk's letter that came by the sword-bearer, 
was a cunning piece, and that which they did 
not much trust to ; but they were resolved to 
make no more applications to the Parliament, 
nor pay any money unless the secluded mem- 
bers be brought in, or a free Parliament chosen. 
To Mrs. Jem, and found her up and merry, as 
it did not prove the small-pox, but the swine- 
pox ; so I played a game or two of cards with 
her. 

16th. In the morning I went up to Mr. 
Crewe's, who did talk to me concerning things 
of State ; and expressed his mind how just it 
was that the secluded members should come to 
sit again. From thence to my office, where 
nothing to do ; but Mr. Downing came and 
found me all alone ; and did mention to me 
his going back into Holland, and did ask me 
whether I would go or no, but gave me little 

i Sir Thomas Allen, created a baronet at the Restoration. 
He was ruined by his expenses as Lord Mayor. 



ME. SECRETARY PEPYS. 27 

encouragement, but bid me consider of it ; and 
asked me whether I did not think that Mr. 
Hawley could perform the work of my office 
alone. I confess that I was at a great loss all 
the day after to bethink myself how to carry 
this business. I staid up till the bell-man came 
by with his bell just under my window as I was 
writing of this very line, and cried, ' Past one 
of the clock, and a cold, frosty, windy morn- 
ing/ 

17th. In our way to Kensington we under- 
stood how that my Lord Chesterfield had killed 
another gentleman about half an hour before, 
and was fled. I went to the coffee club 
(Miles's), and heard very good discourse; it 
was in answer to Mr. Harrington's answer, 
who said that the state of the Roman govern- 
ment was not a settled government, and so it 
was no wonder that the balance of the pros- 
perity was in one hand, and the command in 
another, it being therefore always in a posture 
of war ; but it was carried by ballot that it was 
a steady government, though it is true by the 
voices that it had been carried before that it 
was an unsteady government ; so to-morrow 
it is to be proved by the opponents that the 
balance lay in one hand, and the government 



28 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

in another. Thence I went to Westminster, 
and met Shaw and Washington, who told me 
how this day, Sydenham was voted out of the 
House for sitting any more this Parliament, 
and that Sallow ay was voted out likewise 
and sent to the Tower, during the pleasure 
of the House. At Harper's, Jack Price told 
me, among other things, how much the Pro- 
tector is altered ; though he would seem to bear 
out his trouble very well, yet he is scarce able 
to talk sense with a man ; and how he will say 
that 6 who should a man trust, if he may not 
trust to a brother and an uncle ; ' and c how 
much these men have to answer before God 
Almighty, for their playing the knave w T ith him 
as they did/ He told me also, that there 
was £100,000 offered, and would have been 
taken for his restitution, had not the Parliament 
come in as they did again ; and that he do be- 
lieve that the Protector will live to give a testi- 
mony of his valor and revenge yet before he 
dies, and that the Protector will say so himself 
sometimes. 

18th. I interpreted my Lord's letter by his 
character. 1 All the world is at a loss to think 
what Monk will do ; the City saying that he 

i i. e., in cipher. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 29 

will be for them, and the Parliament saying- 
he will be for them. 

22cZ. (Lord's Day). To church in the after- 
noon to Mr. Herring, where a lazy, poor sermon. 
This day I began to put on buckles to my shoes. 

23 cL This day the Parliament sat late, and 
resolved of the declaration to be printed for the 
people's satisfaction, promising them a great 
many good things. In the garden of White 
Hall, going through to the Stone Gallery, I fell 
in a ditch, it being very dark. 

24zth. I took my wife to Mr. Pierce's, 1 she, 
in her way, being exceedingly troubled with a 
pair of new pattens, and I vexed to go so slow, 
it being late. We found Mrs. Carrick very 
fine, and one Mr. Lucy, who called one another 
husband and w r ife, and after dinner a great deal 
of mad stir. There was pulling off Mrs. Bride's 
and Mr. Bridegroom's ribbons, and a great deal 
of fooling among them that I and my wife did 
not like. Mr. Lucy and several other gentle- 
men coming in after dinner, swearing and sing- 
ing as if they were mad, only he singing very 
handsomely. There also came in Mr. (James) 

i James Pierce, surgeon to the Duke of York, and husband 
of the pretty Mrs. P., whose name occurs so often in the 
jovial Secretary's journal. 



30 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

Southerne, clerk to Mr. Blackburn, and with 
him Lambert, lieutenant of my Lord's ship, 
and brought with them the declaration that 
came out to-day from the Parliament, wherein 
they declare for law and gospel and for tythes ; 
but I do not find people apt to believe them. 
This day the Parliament gave orders that the 
late Committee of Safety should come before 
them this day se'nnight, and all their papers, 
and their model of government that they had 
made, to be brought in with them. Mr. Crum- 
lum gave my father directions what to do about 
getting my brother an exhibition, and spoke 
very well of him. 

25th. Coming home, heard that in Cheapside 
there had been but a little before a gibbet set 
up, and the picture of Huson * hung upon it, in 

i John Hewson, who, from a low origin, became a colonel 
in the Parliament army, and sat in judgment on the king: 
he escaped hanging by flight, and died, in 1662, at Amsterdam. 
A curious notice of Plewson occurs in Uugge's Diurnal, 5th 
December, 1G50, which states that " he was a cobbler by trade, 
but a very stout man, and a very good commander; but in 
regard of his former employment, they (the city apprentices) 
threw at him old shoes, and slippers, and turnip-tops, and 
brickbats, stones, and tiles." . ..." At this time (January, 
1659-00), there came forth, almost every day, jeering books; 
one was called Colonel Ilewson's Confession, or a Parley 
with Pluto, about his going into London, and taking down 
the gates of Temple-bar." He had but one eye, which did 
not escape the notice of his enemies. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 31 

the middle of the street. I called at Paul's 
churchyard, where I bought Buxtor's Hebrew 
Grammar, and read (at Kirton's) a declaration 
of the gentlemen of Northampton, which came 
out this afternoon. To Mr. Crewe's about a 
picture to be sent into the country, of Thomas 
Crewe, to my Lord. 

26th. Called for some papers at Whitehall 
for Mr. Downing, one of which was an Order 
of the Council for £1800 per annum, to be paid 
monthly ; and the other two, Orders to the 
Commissioners of Customs, to let his goods 
pass free. Home from my office to my Lord's 
lodgings, where my wife had got ready a very 
fine dinner, viz : a dish of marrow bones, a leg 
of mutton, a loin of veal, a dish of fowl, three 
pullets, and a dozen of larks, all in a dish ; a 
great tart, a neat's tongue, a dish of anchovies, 
and a dish of prawns and cheese. My company 
was my father, my uncle Fenner, his two sons, 
Mr. Pierce, and all their wives, and my brother 
Tom. The news this day is a letter that speaks 
absolutely Monk's concurrence with this Parlia- 
ment, anu nothing else, which yet I hardly be- 
lieve. I wrote two characters for Mr. Downing 
and carried them to him." 

Pepys was not only a good singer, who could 



32 MR, SECRETARY PEPYS. 

enhance the flavor of a cnp of sack with a 
" mighty fanny story," or a " most admirable 
song," but also composed several airs of great 
beauty. On the 30th, he says, " This morning 
before I was up I fell a-singing of my song, 
' Great, good, and just,' &c, and put myself 
thereby in mind that this was the fatal day, now 
ten years since his Majesty died." This song, 
the first words of which are quoted, was written 
on the execution of Charles the First (and prob- 
ably set to music by Pepys) by one of the 
most gallant soldiers of the seventeenth century 
— the Marquis of Montrose, who, among all the 
great men of his age, in the opinion of the Car- 
dinal de Retz, approached most nearly to the 
ancient heroes of Greece and Rome. In addi- 
tion to his reputation as an illustrious command- 
er, it may truly be said that he possessed an 
elegant genius, spoke eloquently, and wrote 
with a graceful and perspicuous style. The 
night before his execution at the age of thirty- 
eight, he composed, in his prison, the verses that 
follow : — 

"Let them bestow on every airth a limb, 
Open all my veins, that I may swim 
To thee, my Saviour, in that crimson lake, 
Then place my parboiled head upon a stake, 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 33 

Scatter my ashes, throw them in the air; 

Lord, since thou kncrw'st where all these atoms are, 

I'm hopeful once thou'lt recollect my dust, 

And confident thou'lt raise me with the just." 

The lines which The Great Marquis, as 
he was called by his contemporaries, composed 
on the execution of his royal friend, and which 
Pepys designates as " my song," are, — 

" Great, good, and just, could I but rate 
My grief and thy too rigid fate, 
I'd weep the world to such a strain 
That it should deluge once again. 
But since thy loud-tongued blood demands supplies 
More from Briareus' hands than Argus' eyes, 
I'll sing thy obsequies with trumpet sounds, 
And write thy epitaph with blood and wounds." 

" February 1st. Took Gammer East, and 
James the porter, a soldier, to my Lord's lodg- 
ings, who told me how they were drawn into 
the field to-day, and that they were ordered to 
march away to-morrow, to make room for 
General Monk ; but they did shout their Col- 
onel Fitch 1 and the rest of the officers out of 
the field, and swore they would not go without 
their money, and. if they would not give it 

i Thomas Fitch, colonel of a regiment of foot, in 1658 M. P. 
for Inverness ; he was also Lieutenant of the Tower of Lon- 
don. 

3 



34 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

them, they would go where they might have it, 
and that was the city. So the Colonel went to 
the Parliament, and commanded what money 
could be got, to be got against to-morrow for 
them, and all the rest of the soldiers in town, 
who in all places made a mutiny this day, and 
do agree together. 

2nd. To my office, where I found all the 
officers of the regiment iu town waiting to re- 
ceive money, that their soldiers might go out of 
town, aud what was in the Exchequer they had. 
Harper, Luellin, and I, went to the Temple, to 
Mr. Calthrop's chamber, and from thence had 
his man by water to London Bridge, to Mr. 
Calthrop, a grocer, and received £60 for my 
Lord. In our way, we talked with our water- 
man, White, who told us how the watermen had 
lately been abused by some that had a desire to 
get in to be watermen to the State, and had lately 
presented an address of nine or ten thousand 
hands to stand by this Parliament, when it was 
only told them that it was a petition against 
hackney-coaches ; and that to-day they had put 
out another, to undeceive the world and to clear 
themselves. After I had received the money 
we went homewards ; but over against Somer- 
set House, hearing the noise of guns, we landed, 



MR. SECRETARY PEPTS. 35 

and found the Strand full of soldiers. So I took 
up my money and went to Mrs. Johnson, my 
Lord's sempstress, and giving her my money to 
lay up, Doling and I went up stairs to a window, 
and looked out and saw the Foot face the Horse 
and beat them back, and stood bawling and 
calling in the street for a free Parliament and 
money. By and by a drum was heard to beat 
a march, coming towards them, and they all 
got ready again and faced them, and they proved 
to be of the same mind with them ; and so they 
made a great deal of joy to see one another. 
After all this, I went home on foot, to lay up my 
money, and change my stockings and shoes. 
I this day left off my great skirt suit, and put 
on my white suit, with silver lace coat, 1 and 
went over to Harper's, where I met with W. 
Simonds, Doling, Luellin, and three merchants, 
one of which had occasion to use a porter, and 
so they sent for one, and James the soldier came, 
who told us how they had been all day and 
night upon their guard at St. James's, and that 
through the whole town they did resolve to 
stand to what they had begun, and that to-mor- 

1 Pepys' father was a tailor, whence, perhaps, the impor- 
tance he attaches throughout the Diary to dress; it is evident- 
ly more than vanity. 



36 MR. SECRETARY PEPTS. 

row he did believe they would go into the city, 
and be received there. After this we went to a 
sport called, selling of a horse for a dish of eggs 
and herrings, and sat talking there till almost 
twelve at night. 

3rcL Drank my morning draft at Harper's, 
and was told there that the soldiers were all 
quiet upon promise of pay. Thence to St. 
James's Park, back to Whitehall, where, in a 
guard chamber, I saw about thirty or forty 
'prentices of the city, who were taken at twelve 
o'clock last night, and brought prisoners hither. 
Thence to my office, where I paid a little more 
money to some of the soldiers under Lieut. 
Col. Miller, (who held out the tower against 
the Parliament, after it was taken away from 
Fitch by the Committee of Safety, and yet he 
continued in his office.) About noon Mrs. 
Turner x came to speak with me and Joyce, and 
I took them and showed them the manner of the 
Houses sitting, the doorkeeper very civilly open- 
ing the door for us. We went walking all over 
White Hall, whither General Monk was newly 
come, and we saw all his forces march by iu 

1 Jane, daughter of John Pepys of Norfolk, married to John 
Turner, sergeant-at-la\v ; their only child, Theophila, is fre 
quently mentioned as The or Theoph. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 37 

very good plight, and stout officers. After din- 
ner I went to hear news, but only found that 
the Parliament House was most of them with 
Monk at White Hall, and that in passing through 
the town he had many calls to him for a free 
Parliament, but little other welcome. I saw, in 
the Palace Yard, how unwilling some of the old 
soldiers were yet to go out of town without 
their money, and swore if they had it not in 
three days, as they were promised, they would 
do them more mischief in the country than if 
they had stayed here ; and that is very likely, the 
country being all discontented. The town and 
guards are already full of Monk's soldiers. It 
growing dark, to take a turn in the Park, where 
Theoph (she was sent for to us to dinner) out- 
ran my wife and another poor woman, that laid 
a pot of ale with me that she would outrun her." 
To a modern reader such diversions may 
appear questionable for a respectable female to 
engage in ; but they will recollect it was a sim- 
ple frolic after dark, in Hyde Park, and not to 
be paralleled by what is now an every-day oc- 
currence, viz., to witness females pick up a given 
amount of eggs^ pebbles, or potatoes, in a given 
time, and for a stated consideration in good cur- 
rent dollars. Within a few years we have wit- 



38 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

nessed one of these " swift Camillas scour the 
plain " — for some hours — pantalooned and 
high kilted, and having successfully achieved 
her task, she nonchalantly bowed to the de- 
lighted public and retired to private life as cool 
as a cucumber, and fresh as a daisy. On the 
day previous, we are also informed that Pepys 
himself, and a party of merchant friends, met 
at Harper's tavern, and there disported them- 
selves with an amusement called " selling of a 
horse for a dish of eggs and herrings ; " but as a 
per contra to this plebeian funning, we have a 
recent instance of a batch of half-fuddled New 
York Aldermen indulging in a regular set to at 
hop scotch and leap frog, after the onerous labors 
of the supper-table were over, while an assem- 
blage of Councilmen found entertainment the 
other day, in throwing inkstands at each other's 
heads. To this illustration of the text, we may 
overtly mention the case of a distinguished Eng- 
lish duke, of the ancieut and honorable house of 
Beaufort, who only a few years ago was fined 
one hundred pounds for an assault on a peace- 
able, private citizen, who was simply looking at 
said Duke unbending his noble mind by playing 
at the elegant amusement of u Aunt Sally." 
Mais chacun d son gout; or, as the old Scotch 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 39 

woman said when she kissed her cow — " Every 
ane to their fancy." 

" 4:th. All the news to-day is, that the Parlia- 
ment this morning voted the House to be made 
up four hundred forthwith. Discourse at an 
alehouse about Marriott, the great eater, so I 
was ashamed to eat what I could have done. 
I met Spicer in Lincoln's Inn Court, buying of 
a hanging-jack to roast birds upon. My wife 
killed her turkeys that came out of Zealand 
with my Lord, and could not get her maid Jane 
to kill any thing at any time. 

5th. (Lord's Day.) At church I saw Dick 

Cumberland, newly come out of the country 

from his living. In the Court of Wards I saw 

the three Lords Commissioners sitting upon 

some action where Mr. Scobell was concerned 

j 

and my Lord Fountaine took him up very 
roughly about some things that he said. 

6th. To Westminster, where we found the 
soldiers, all set in the Palace Yard, to make 
way for General Monk to come to the House. 
I stood upon the steps and saw Monk go by, he 
making observance to the judges as he went 
along. 

7th. Went to Vaul's school, where he that 
made the speech for the seventh form in praise 



40 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

of the Founder, did show a book which Mr. 
Crumlum had lately got, which he believed to 
be of the Founder's own writing. My brother 
John came off as well as any of the rest in the 
speeches. To the Hall, where in the Palace I 
saw Monk's soldiers abuse Billing, and all the 
Quakers, that were at a meeting-place there, 
and indeed the soldiers did use them very 
roughly, and were to blame. This day Mr. 
Crewe told me that my Lord St. John is for a 
free Parliament, and that he is very great with 
Monk, who hath now the absolute command 
and power to do anything that he hath a mind 
to do. 

9th. Before I was out of my bed I heard the 
soldiers very busy in the morning, getting their 
horses ready when they lay at Hilton's, but I 
knew not their meaning in so doing. In the 
Hall I understand how Monk is this morning 
gone into London with his army ; and Mr. 
Fage told me that he do believe that Monk is 
gone to secure some of the Common Council 
of the city, who were very high yesterday there, 
and did vote that they would not pay any taxes 
till the House was filled up. I went to my 
office, where I wrote to my Lord after I had 
been at the Upper Bench, where Sir Robert 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 4t\ 

Pye this morning came to desire his discharge 
from the Tower, but it could not be granted. 
I called at Mr. Harper's, who told me how 
Monk had this day clapt up many of the Com- 
mon Council, and that the Parliament had voted 
that he should pull down their gates and port- 
cullises, their posts and their chains, which he 
do intend to do, and do lie in the city all night. 
To Westminster Hall, where I heard an action 
very finely pleaded between my Lord Dorset 
and some other noble persons, his lady and 
other ladies of quality beiog there, and it was 
about £330 per annum, which w T as to be paid 
to a poor Spittal, which was given by some of 
his predecessors, and given on his side. 

10th. Mr. Fage told me what Monk had 
done in the city, how he had pulled down the 
most part of the gates and chains that they 
could break down, and that he was now gone 
back to White Hall. The city look mighty blank 
and cannot tell what in the world to do ; the 
Parliament having this day ordered that the 
Common Council sit no more, but that new ones 
be chosen, according to what qualifications they 
shall give them. 

\\th, I heard the news of a letter from 
Monk, who was now gone into the city again, 



42 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

and did resolve to stand for the sudden filling 
up of the House, and it was very strange how 
the countenance of men in the Hall was all 
changed with joy in half an hour's time. So I 
went to the lobby, where I saw the Speaker 
reading of the letter, and after it was read, Sir 
A. Haselrigge came out very angry, and Billing, 
standing at the door, took him by the arm and 
cried, ; Thou man, will thy beast carry thee no 
longer ? thou must fall ! ' We took coach for 
the city to Guildhall, where the Hall was full 
of people expecting Monk and the Lord Mayor 
to come thither, and all very joyful. Met 
Monk coming out of the chamber where he 
had been with the mayor and alderman, but 
such a shout I never heard in all my life, cry- 
ing out, ' God bless your Excellence ! ' Here 
I met with Mr. Lock, 1 and took him to an ale- 
house ; when we were come together, he told 
us the substance of the letter that went from 
Mark to the Parliament ; wherein, after com- 
plaints that he and his officers were put upon 
such offices against the city as they could not 
do with any content or honor, it states, that 
there are many members now in the House 

1 Matthew Locke, the celebrated composer. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 43 

that were of the late Tyrannical Committee of 
Safety. That Lambert and Vane are now in 
town, contrary to the vote of Parliament. That 
many of the House do press for new oaths to 
be put upon men ; whereas we have more cause 
to be sorry for the many oaths that we have 
already taken and broken. That the late peti- 
tion of the fanatique people presented by Bare- 
bones, 1 for the imposing of an oath upon all 
sorts of people, was received by the House with 
thanks. That therefore he did desire that all 
writs for filling up of the House be issued by 
Friday next, and that in the meantime he would 
retire into the city, and only leave them guards 
for the security of the House and Council. The 
occasion of this was the order that he had last 
night to go into the city and disarm them and 
take away their charter ; whereby he and his 
officers said that the House had a mind to put 
them upon things that should make them odi- 
ous ; and so it would be in their power to do 
what they would with them. We were told 
that the Parliament had sent Scotc 2 and Robin- 

1 Praise God Barebones, an active member of the Parlia- 
ment called by his name. He appeared at the head of a band 
of fanatics, and alarmed Monk, who well knew his influence. 
He was a leather-seller in Fleet Street, London. 

2 Thomas Scott, recently made Secretary of State, had 



44 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

son to Monk this afternoon, but he would not 
hear them ; and that the Mayor and Aldermen 
had offered their own houses for himself and 
his officers ; and that his soldiers would lack for 
nothing. And indeed I saw many people give 
the soldiers drink and money, and all along the 
streets cried, ' God bless them ! ' and extraor- 
dinary good words. Hence we went to a mer- 
chant's house hard by, where I saw Sir Nich. 
Crisp, 1 and so we went to the Star tavern 
(Monk being at Benson's). In Cheapside there 
was a great many bonfires, and Bow bells and 
all the bells in all the churches as we went 
home were a ringing. Hence we went home- 
wards, it being about ten at night. But the 

signed the king's death-warrant, for which he was executed 
at Charing Cross, 16th October, 1CG0. He and Luke Robinson 
were both members of Parliament and of the Council of State, 
and selected, as firm adherents to the JRump, to watch Monk's 
proceedings; and never was a mission more signally unsuc- 
cessful. Scott, before his execution, desired to have it writ- 
ten on his tombstone, " Thomas Scott, who adjudged to death 
the late king." 

i An eminent merchant, and one of the farmers of the cus- 
toms. He had advanced large sums to assist Charles I., who 
created him a baronet. He died 26th February, 1665, aged 
sixty-seven, and was buried in the church of St. Mildred, 
Bread Street. For an account of him and his magnificent 
house at Hammersmith, on the site of which Brandenburgh 
House was built, see Lyon's Environs and other local his- 
tories. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 45 

common joy, that was everywhere to be seen ! 
The number of bonfires, there being fourteen 
between St. Dunstan's and Temple Bar, and at 
Strand Bridge, 1 I could at one time tell thirty- 
one fires. In King Street seven or eight ; and 
all along, burning, and roasting, and drinking 
for rumps. There being rumps tied upon sticks 
and carried up and down. The butchers at the 
May Pole in the Strand 2 rang a peal with their 
knives when they were going to sacrifice their 
rump. On Ludgate Hill there was one turning 
of the spit that had a rump tied upon it, and 
another basting of it. Indeed it was past 
imagination, both the greatness and the sud- 
denness of it. At one end of the street you 
would think there was a whole lane of fire, and 
so hot that we were fain to keep on the further 
side." 

12th. (Lord's Day.) In the morning, it being 
Lord's Day, to White Hall, where Dr. Holmes 
preached ; but I staid not to hear, but walking 
in the court, I heard that Sir Arthur Hasel- 
rigge was newly gone into the city to Monk, 

1 Described in Maitland's History of London as a handsome 
bridge crossing the Strand, near the east end of Catherine 
Street, under which a small stream glided from the fields into 
the Thames, near Somerset House. 

- Where stands the church of St. Mary-le-Strand. 



46 MB. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

and that Monk's wife 1 removed from White 
Hall last night. After dinner, I heard that 
Monk had been at Paul's in the morning, and 
the people had shouted much at his coming out 
of the church. In the afternoon he was at a 
church in Broad Street, whereabout he do 
lodge. Walking with Mr. Kirton's 2 apprentice 
during evening church, and looking for a tavern 
to drink at, but not finding any open, we durst 
not knock. To my father's, where Charles 
Glascocke was overjoyed to see how things are 
now ; who told me the boys had last night 
broke Barebones' windows. 

13th. This day Monk was invited to White 
Hall to dinner by my Lords ; not seeming 
willing, he would not come. I went to Mr. 
Fage from my father's, who had been this 
afternoon with Monk, who did promise to 
live and die with the city, and for the honor 
of the city ; and indeed the city is very open- 
handed to the soldiers, that they are most of 

1 Anne Clarges, daughter of a blacksmith, and bred a mil- 
liner; mistress, and afterwards wife, of General Monk, over 
whom she exercised the greatest influence. 

2 Thomas Kirton was a bookseller in St. Paul's Churchyard, 
at the sign of " The King's Arms." His death in October, 
1667, is recorded in Smith's Obituary, printed for the Camden 
Society. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 47 

m 

them drunk all day, and had money given 
them. 

14th. My wife, hearing Mr. Moore's voice 
in my dressing-chamber, got herself ready, and 
came down, and challenged him for her valen- 
tine. To "Westminster Hall, there being many 
new remonstrances and declarations from many 
counties to Monk and the city, and one coming 
from the North from Sir Thomas Fairfax. 1 I 
heard that the Parliament had now changed the 
oath so much talked of to a promise ; and that, 
among other qualifications for the members 
that are to be chosen, one is that no man, nor 
the son of any man, that hath been in arms 
during the life of the father, shall be capable 
of being chosen to sit in Parliament. This 
day, by an order of the House, Sir H. Yane 2 
was sent out of town to his house in Lincoln- 
shire. 

15th. No news to-day, but all quiet to see 
what the Parliament will do about the issuing 

1 Thomas Lord Fairfax, mentioned before. He bad suc- 
ceeded to the Scotch Barony of Fairfax, of Cameron, on the 
death of his father in 164?; even after bis accession to the 
title, he is frequently styled " Sir Thomas " in the pamphlets 
and papers of the day. 

2 Sir H. Vane had married Frances, daughter of Sir Christo- 
pher Wray, of Ashby, Lincolnshire, Bart. 



48 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

• 

of the writs to-morrow for the filling up of the 
House, according to Monk's desire. 

11th. To Westminster Hall, where I heard 
that some of the members of the House were 
gone to meet some of the secluded members 
and General Monk in the city. Thence to 
White Hail, thinking to hear more news, where 
I met Mr. Hunt, who told me how Monk had 
sent for all his goods that he had here, into the 
city ; and yet again he told me, that some of 
the members of the House had this day laid in 
firing into their lodgings at Whitehall for a 
good while, so that we are at a great stand to 
think what will become of things, whether 
Monk will stand by the Parliament or no. 
Drank with Mr. Wotten, who told me a great 
many stories of comedies that he had formerly 
seen acted, and the names of the principal 
actors, and gave me a very good account of 
it." 

In glancing at the history of this period, one 
remarkable feature in the aspect of the times is 
the uncertain and doubtful issue of the passing 
events of the day. The Cavaliers seemed to 
be gathering new life and animation for the 
coming struggle, in which they had everything 
to gain, and little to lose, being already over- 



ME. SECRETARY PJSPYS. 49 

fleeced by the fines and other penal exactions of 
the Commonwealth ; while the adherents of the 
latter were stirring heaven and earth to place 
Mouk or Richard Cromwell in the Protectorate. 
The army, always the main stay and bulwark 
of the Commonwealth, was to a man against 
the king, while Monk, like a wary and skilful 
gambler, was deeply intent in studying the cards 
that chance had dealt out to him. He required, 
however, short space for deliberation, for the 
English nation, tired of the multitude of its 
masters, was again ready to put its neck into 
the yoke of one; and the following interesting 
passages of the Diary inform us how the de- 
nouement of this grand drama was introduced. 
Pepys, with his father and his brother John, 
had gone to Magdalen College, Cambridge, to 
procure a certificate for the entrance of the lat- 
ter, and on his setting out to return home we 
have the following details : — 

" 27th, Up by four o'clock ; Mr. Blayton and 
I took horse and straight to SaiTorn Walden, 
where, at the White Hart, we set up our horses, 
and took the master of the house to show us 
Audley End House, 1 who took us on foot through 

1 Theii the residence of James Howard, third Earl of Suf- 
folk. It was built by Thomas, the first Earl, at the commence- 

1 



50 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

the park, and to the house, where the house- 
keeper showed us all through the house, in 
which the stateliness of the ceilings, chimney- 
pieces, and form of the whole was exceedingly 
worth seeing. He took us into the cellar, where 
we drank most admirable drink, a health to the 
king. Here I played on my flageolette, there 
being an excellent echo. He showed us excel- 
lent pictures ; two especially, those of the four 
Evangelists and Henry VIII. In our going my 
landlord carried us through a very old hospital 
or almshouse, where forty poor people were 
maintained ; a very old foundation ; and over 
the chimney-piece was an inscription in brass : 
" Orate pro anima Thomae Bird," l &c. 2 They 
brought me a draught of their drink in a brown 
bowl tipt with silver, which I drank off, and in 
the bottom was a picture of the Virgin with the 
child in her arms, done in silver. So we took 
leave, the road pretty good, but the weather 
raining, to Epping. 

ment of the seventeenth century, and called after his maternal 
ancestor, Lord Chancellor Audley, to whom the monastery of 
Walden, the site of which is occupied by the present house, 
had been granted at the Dissolution. 

1 Byrd in the original. 

2 The inscription and the bowl are still to be seen in the 
almshouse. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 51 

28th. Up in the morning, and had some red 
herrings to our breakfast, while my boot-heel 
was a-mending, by the same token the boy left 
the hole as big as it was before. Then to horse 
for London, through the forest, where we found 
the way good, but only in one path, which we 
kept as if we had rode through a kennel all the 
way. We found the shops all shut, and the 
militia of the red regiment in arms at the old 
Exchange, among whom I found and spoke to 
Nich. Osborne, who told me that it was a thanks- 
giving-day through the city for the return of the 
Parliament. At Paul's I light, Mr. Blayton 
holding my horse, where I found Dr. Reynolds l 
in the pulpit, and General Monk there, who was 
to have a great entertainment at Grocers' Hall. 
I found my Lord at dinner glad to see me. 

29th. To my office. Mr. Moore told me 
how my Lord is chosen General at sea by the 
Council, and that it is thought that Monk w r ill 
be joined with him therein. This day my Lord 
came to the House, the first time since he came 
to town ; but he had been at the Council before. 
My cousin Morton gave me a brave cup of 
metheglin, the first I ever drank. 

i Edward Reynolds, D. D., Dean of Christ Church, and af- 
terwards Bishop of Norwich. He died 1676 : his works are 
well known. 



52 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

March 1st Out of the box where my Lord's 
pamphlets lay, I chose as many as I had a mind 
to have for my own use, and left the rest. I 
went to Mr. Crewe's, whither Mr. Thomas was 
newly come to town, being sent with Sir H. 
Yelverton, 1 my old schoolfellow at Paul's School, 
to bring the thanks of the country to General 
Monk for the return of the Parliament. 

2nd. I went early to my Lord at Mr. Crewe's, 
where I spoke to him. Here were a great many 
come to see him, as Secretary Thurloe, 2 who is 
now by the Parliament chosen again Secretary 
of State. To Westminster Hall, where I saw 
Sir Gr. Booth at liberty. This day I hear the 
City militia is put into good posture, and it is 
thought that Monk will not be able to do any 
great matter against them now, if he had a mind. 
I understand that my Lord Lambert did yester- 
day send a letter to the Council, and that to- 
night he is to come and appear to the Council 

1 Son of Sir Christopher Yelverton, the first Baronet. 
Grandson of Sir Henry Yelverton, Judge C. P., author of the 
Ueports. He married Susan, Baroness Grey de lluthyn, 
which title descended to his issue. His son was afterwards 
advanced to the dignity of Viscount Longueville, and his 
grandson to the Earldom of Sussex. 

2 John Thurloe, who had been Secretary of State to the two 
Protectors, but was never employed after the Restoration, 
though the King solicited his services. Ob. 1668. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 53 

in person. Sir Arthur Haselrigge do not } T et 
appear in the House. Great is the talk of a 
single person, and that it would now be Charles, 
George, or Richard again, 1 for the last of which 
my Lord St. John 2 is said to speak high. 
Great also is the dispute now in the House, in 
whose name the writs shall run for the next 
Parliament ; and it is said that Mr, Prin, in 
open house, said, ' In King Charles's.' 

3rd. To Westminster Hall, where I found 
that my Lord was last night voted one of the 
Generals at sea, and Monk the other. I met 
my Lord in the Hall, who bid me come to him 
at noon. After dinner, I to Warwick House, 3 
in Holborne, to my Lord, where he dined with 
my Lord of Manchester, 4 Sir Dudley North, 5 
my Lord Fiennes, 6 and my Lord Barkly. 7 I 

i Charles Stuart; George Monk; Richard Cromwell. 

2 Oliver St. John; see Feb. 7, 1659-60. 

3 Near Gray's Inn, where Warwick Court now stands. 

4 The Parliamentary General, afterwards particularly in- 
strumental in the King's Restoration, became Chamberlain of 
the Household, K. G., a privy Counsellor, and Chancellor of 
the University of Cambridge. He died in 1671, having- been 
five times married. 

5 Sir Dudley North, K. B., became the fourth Lord North 
on the death of his father, in 1006. Ob. 1677. 

6 John, third son of William, first Viscount Say and Sele, 
and one of Oliver's Lords. 

7 George, thirteenth Lord Berkeley of Berkeley, created Earl 
of Berkeley 1679. There were at this time two Lord Berke- 
leys, each possessing a town house called after his name, 



54 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

stayed in the great hall, talking with some gen- 
tlemen there, till they all came out. Then I by 
coach with my Lord, to Mr. Crewe's, in our 
way talking of public things. He told me he 
. feared there was new design hatching, as if 
Monk had a mind to get into the saddle. Re- 
turning, met with Mr. Gifford, who told me, as 
I hear from many, that things are in a doubtful 
posture, some of the Parliament being willing 
to keep the power in their hands. After I had 
left him, I met Tom Harper ; he talked huge 
high that my Lord Protector would come in 
place again, which indeed is much talked of 
again, though I do not see it possible. 

5th. To Westminster by water, only seeing 
Mr. Pinkny * at his own house, where he showed 

which misled Pennant and other biographers following in his 
track. George, thirteenth Lord Berkeley of Berkeley, ad- 
vanced to the Earldom in 1679, the Peer here spoken of, lived 
at Berkeley House, in the parish of St. John's, Clerkenwell, 
which had been in his family for three generations, and had a 
country seat at Durdans near Epsom, mentioned by Evelyn 
and Pepys. His death took place in 1689. The other nobleman, 
originally known as Sir John Berkeley, and in the service of 
Charles I., created in 1658 Baron Berkeley of Stratton, subse- 
quently filled many high offices in the State, and was in 1670 
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and in 1674 went Ambassador to 
France, and died in 1678. He built a splendid mansion in Pic- 
cadilly, called also Berkeley House, upon the site of which 
Devonshire House now stands. 

1 Probably Leonard Pinkney, who was clerk of the Kitchen, 
at the ensuing Coronation Feast. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 55 

me how he had always kept the Lion and Uni- 
corne in the back of his chimney, bright, in ex- 
pectation of the King's coming again. At home 
I found Mr. Hunt, who told me how the Par- 
liament had voted that the Covenant be printed 
and hung in churches again. Great hopes of 
the King's coming again. 

6th. Shrove Tuesday. I called Mr. Shep- 
ley, and we both went up to my Lord's lodgings 
at Mr. Crewe's, where he bids us go home again, 
and get a fire against an hour after, which we 
did, at White Hall, whither he came, and after 
talking with him about our going to sea, he 
called me by myself into the garden, where he 
asked me how things went with me. He bid 
me look out now at this good turn some place, 
and he would use all his own, and all the inter- 
est of the friends that he had in England, to do 
me good ; and asked me whether I could, with- 
out too much inconvenience, go to sea as his 
secretary, and bid me think of it. He also be- 
gan to talk of things of State, and he told me 
that he should want one in that capacity at sea, 
that he might trust in, and therefore he would 
have me to go. He told me also, that he did 
believe the King would come in, and did dis- 
course with me about it, and about the affection 



56 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

of the people and city, at which I was full glad. 
Mr. Hawley brought rue a seaman that had 
promised l'OZ. to him if he got him a pur- 
ser's place, which I thiuk to endeavor to do. 
My uncle Tom inquires about the Knights of 
Windsor, of which he desires to be one. To 
see Mrs. Jem, at whose chamber door I found 
a couple of ladies, but she* not being there, we 
hunted her out, and found that she and another 
had hid themselves behind a door. Well, they 
all went down into the dining-room, where it 
was full of tag, rag, and bob-tail, dancing, sing- 
ing, and drinking, of which I was ashamed, and 
after I had staid a dance or two, I went away. 
Wrote by the post, by my Lord's command, for 
P. Goods to come up presently ; for my Lord 
intends to go forth with goods to the Swiftsure 
till the Nazeby be ready. This day I hear that 
the Lords do intend to sit, a great store of them 
are now in town, and, I see, in the Hall to-day. 
Overton 1 at Hull do stand out, but can, it is 
thought, do nothing ; and Lawson, it is said, is 
gone with some ships thither, but all that is 
nothing. My Lord told me that there was great 
endeavors to bring in the Protector again ; but 
he told me, too, that he did not believe it would 

1 The Parliamentary General. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 57 

last long if he were brought in ; no, nor the 
King neither, (though he seems to think that 
he will come in) unless he carry himself very 
soberly and well. Everybody now drinks the 
King's health without any fear, whereas before 
it was very private that a man dare do it. 
Monk, this day, is feasted at Mercer's Hall, and 
is invited, one after another, to the twelve 
Halls in London. Many think that he is hon- 
est yet, and some or more think him to be a 
fool, that would raise himself, but think that he 
will undo himself by endeavoring it. 

7th (Ash Wednesday). Washington told me, 
upon my question, whether he knew of any 
place now ready, that I might have by power 
over my friends, that this day Mr. G. Montagu 1 
was to be made Custos Rotulorum for West- 
minster, and that I might get to be named by 
him Clerk of the Peace ; but my Lord he be- 
lieves Mr. Montagu had already promised it, 
and that it was given him only that he might 
gratify one person with the place I look for. 
Going homeward, my Lord overtook me in his 
coach, and called me in, and so I went with 

1 George Montagu, fifth son of Henry, first Earl of Man- 
chester, afterwards M. P. for Dover, and father of the first 
Earl of Halifax. 



58 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

him to St. James, and G-. Montagu being gone 
to White Hall, we walked over the Park thither, 
all the way he discoursing of the times, and of 
the change of things since last year, and won- 
dering how he could bear with so great disap- 
pointment as he did. He did give me the best 
advice that he could what was best for me, 
whether to stay or go with him, and offered all 
the ways that could be, how he would do me 
good, with the greatest liberty and love that 
could be. This day, according to order, Sir 
Arthur 1 appeared at the house ; what was done 
I know not, but there was all the Rumpers al- 
most come to the house to-day. My Lord did 
seem to wonder much why Lambert was so 
willing to be put into the Tower, and thinks he 
has some design in it ; but I think he is so poor 
he cannot use his liberty for debts, if he were 
at liberty ; and so it is as good and better for 
him to be there than anywhere else. My father 
left my uncle with his leg very dangerous, and 
do not believe he can continue long. My uncle 
did acquaint him that he did intend to make 
me his heir, and give my brother Tom some- 
thing, (and to leave) something to raise por- 

1 Sir Arthur Hasselrigge. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 59 

tions for John and Pall. 1 I pray God he may 
be as good as his word. This news and my 
Lord's great kindness makes me very cheerful 
within. 

8th. To ATestminster Hall, where there was 
a general damp over men's minds and faces 
upon some of the officers of the army being 
about making a remonstrance upon Charles 
Stuart or any single person ; but at noon it was 
told that the general had put a stop to it, so all 
was well again. Here I met with Jasper, who 
was to bring me to my Lord at the lobby ; 
whither sending a note to my Lord, he comes 
out to me and gives me directions to look after 
getting some money for him from the Admiralty, 
seeing that things are so unsafe, that he would 
not lay out a farthing for the State till he had 
received some money of theirs. This after- 
noon, some of the officers of the army, and 
some of the Parliament, had a conference at 
White Hall, to make all right again, but I 
know not what was done. At the Dog 2 Tavern, 
Captain Phillip Holland, with whom I advised 

1 John and Paulina Pepys, our author's brother and sister. 

2 A house still existing in Holywell Street, in the Strand, 
bears this name, but from mention elsewhere, the Dog Tavern 
here recorded must have been in Westminster. 



60 MR, SECRETARY PEPYS. 

how to make some advantage of my Lord's go- 
ing to sea, told me to have five or six servants 
entered on board as dead men, and I to give 
them what wages I pleased, and so their pay- 
to be mine ; he also urged me to take the Sec- 
retary's place that my Lord did proffer me. 
Then in comes Mr. Wade and Mr. S terry, Sec- 
retary to the Plenipotentiary in Denmark, who 

brought the news of the death of the King of 

© © 

Sweden, 1 at Gottenburgh, the 3d of last month, 
and he told me what a great change he found 
when he came here, the secluded members be- 
ing restored. 

9th, To my -Lord at his lodging, and came 
to Westminster with him in the coach ; and 
Mr. Budley and he in the Painted Chamber 
walked a good while ; and I telling him that I 
was willing and ready to go with him to sea, 
he agreed that I should, and advised me what 
to write to Mr. Downing about it. This day it 
was resolved that the writs do go out in the 
name of the Keepers of the Liberty, and I hear 
that it is resolved privately that a treaty be 
offered with the King ; and that Monk did 
check his soldiers highly for what they did yes- 
terday. 

i Charles Gustavus. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 61 

10th. To my father in his cutting house, and 
told him my resolution to go to sea with my 
Lord, and we resolved of letting my wife be at 
Mr. Bowyer's. 1 

12th. Eode to Huntsmore to Mr. Bowyer's, 
where I found him and all well, and willing to 
have my wife come and board with them while 
I was at sea. Here I lay and took a spoonful 
of honey and a nutmeg, scraped for my cold by 
Mr. Bowyer's direction." 

The following entry indicates the doubtful 
position of affairs, and the sentiments of the 
army with regard to a monarchy : — 

" 13th. At my Lord's lodging, who told me 
that I was to be Secretary, and Crewe deputy 
treasurer to the Fleet, at which I w T as troubled, 
but I could not help it. This day the Parlia- 
ment voted all that had been by the former 
Rump against the House of Lords to be void, 
and that to-night the writs go out without any 
qualification. Things seem very doubtful what 
will be the end of all ; for the Parliament seems 
to be strong for the King, while the soldiers do 
all talk against." 

Yes, they all talked against the restoration 
of Charles, but the man who could have resolved 

1 Bowycr hud probably married Mrs. Pepys's mother. 



62 MR. SECRETARY PEPTS. 

their talk into action was slumbering in West- 
minster Abbey ; and while their hostility to the 
coming man evaporated in frothy threats and 
pointless vituperation, the heads to conceive 
and the hands to execute were quietly trans- 
ferring the allegiance of army and navy — Re- 
publican and Royalist — to their legitimate 
sovereign, Charles Stuart. On the following 
day, Pepys has this entry: "This day I saw 
General Monk, and methought he seemed a 
dull, heavy man." Ah Samuel, Samuel Pepys ! 
every day's experience proves the fallacy 
of judging men by their seeming. How often 
do seeming saints, apparently ripe for transla- 
tion to better society above, turn out very devils 
disguised in humanity ! How often does the 
seeming patriot solemnly protest and swear to 
his honest devotion to his constituents' interests 
with the bribe and purchase money for his vote 
in his breeches pocket ! And how often do we 
find, in the records of eminent men, the most 
marked contrast between their real greatness and 
their outward seeming ! As the old poet tells us, 

" appearances deceive, 
And this one maxim is a standing rule — 
Men are not what they seem." 

To Samuel Pepys, his namesake, Samuel 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 63 

Johnson, would inevitably have " seemed a 
dull, heavy man." So would Oliver Goldsmith, 
Edmund Burke, Thomas Chalmers, John Fos- 
ter, and Robert Hall. 

As for Sir Walter Scott, what would have 
been our diarist's conclusion had he looked 
upon those lustreless, dreamy eyes, seeming to 
gaze on vacancy from under those shaggy, 
pent-house eyebrows as he sat at the Clerk's 
table in the Court of Session, perhaps evolving 
those matchless creations of an exuberant and 
glowing imagination which in all after times 
were to delight and instruct an admiring world ? 
Utterly unconscious of the myriads of eyes 
gazing upon him as they would have gazed on 
a magnificent old lion through the bars of an 
iron cage, there he sat day by day, that miracu- 
lous pen ever in motion. Yet world-wide as 
his fame was, there were about him no airs of 
greatness, no attempt at acting. In simple, 
quiet, manly dignity, he appeared to sit like 
the Mysterious- Sphinx, looking into a world of 
shadowy unrealities, as if calling up before him 
those wonderful, yet life-like creatures that fill 
his more wonderful and life-like dramas ; and 
amid all this, the utter unpretending simplicity 
of the man was as delightful as the high char- 



64 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

acter and renown of the author. This fully 
justifies the remark of the Forfarshire farmer, 
who, on having Scott pointed out to him as he 
sat in his accustomed place in the Court of Ses- 
sion, exclaimed, u What ! that sleepy-looking 
carle wi' the white hair, at the north side o' 
the table — that Sir Walter ! it's no possible ! 
Od, he looks juist like ane o' our farmer-folk, 
in the Carse o' Gowrie, in his Sunday gear ! 
Hoo I wish I could shake hands and tak' a 
snuff wi' him ! but as that seems no juist con- 
venient, there's nae harm in saying, God bless 
Sir Walter Scott ! " 

But to return to Monk. Cromwell, a much 
more profound judge of character than Pepys, 
formed a high estimate of the military talents 
of Monk, made him his lieutenant-general, and 
gave him the chief command in Scotland. But 
the sagacious usurper had strong suspicions of 
Monk's sincerity, and not long before his death, 
wrote him a letter, to which he added this post- 
script : " There be that tell me that there is 
a certain cunning fellow in Scotland, called 
George Monk, who is said to lie in wait there 
to introduce Charles Stuart. I pray you use 
your diligence to apprehend him, and send him 
up to me." It will thus be obvious that Monk's 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 65 

fire and alacrity of spirit were more of an in- 
ward flame, and burned on an unseen and imma- 
terial altar, and that the outward manifestation 
of unwieldy inertness with which he was charge- 
able was but the rude grandeur of the embra- 
sured rock which only awakes from its slumber 
at the fierce blare of the trumpet-call to battle. 
Having received the thanks of the House for 
his public services, Monk, in his reply, adverted 
to the numerous applications* he had received 
for a full and free Parliament, at the same time 
expressing his dislike of oaths and engagements, 
and his hopes that neither Fanatic nor Cavalier 
would again be intrusted with civil or military 
power. By some his speech was thought ar- 
rogant and dictatorial. u The servant," said 
Scott, " has already learned to give directions 
to his masters." It was no marvel Monk 
should direct his masters, for, ere this date, he 
had been bargained for and bought by another 
master, who could offer a heavier bribe with an 
earldom for the bait, and while he appeared 
the prompt and humble servant of the Common 
Council, he was maturing a deep scheme of 
masterly policy for the total overthrow of the 
Commonwealth, and the return of the exiled 
monarch to the throne of his fathers. 
5 



66 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

" 14^. To my Lord's, where infinity of appli- 
cations to him and to me. To my great trou- 
ble, my Lord gives me all the papers that was 
given to him, to put in order and to give him 
an account of them. Here I got half a piece 
of a person of Mr. Wright's recommending to 
my Lord, to be Chaplain of the Speaker frigate. 
I went hence to St. James, to speak with Mr. 
Clerke, 1 Monk's Secretary, about getting some 
soldiers removed out of Huntington to Oundle, 
which my Lord told me he did to do a courtesy 
to the town, that he might have the greater 
interest in them, in the choice of the next Par- 
liament ; and that he intends to be chosen him- 
self, but that he might have Mr. G. Montagu 
and my Lord Mandeville, 2 chose there in spite 
of the Bernards. This done, I saw General 
Monk, and methought he seemed a dull heavy 
heavy man. I did promise to give my wife all 
that I have in the world, but my books, in case 
I should die at sea. After supper I went to 
Westminster Hall, and the Parliament sat till 
ten at night, thinking and being expected to 
dissolve themselves to-day, but they did not. 

i Clement Clerke, of Lawnde Abbey, Leicester County, cre- 
ated a baronet in 16G1. 
2 Eldest son of the Earl of Manchester. 



MB. SECRETARY PEPYS. 0< 

Great talk to-night that the discontented offi- 
cers, did think this night to make a stir, but 
were prevented. 

15th. Early packing my things to be sent by 
cart with the rest of my Lord's. At Well's I 
met Tom Alcock, one that went to school with 
me at Huntingdon, but I had not seen him 
these sixteen years. 

16th, To Westminster, where I heard how 
the Parliament had this day dissolved them- 
selves, and did pass very cheerfully through the 
Hall, and the speaker without his mace. The 
whole Hall was joyful thereat, as well as them- 
selves, and now they begin to talk loud of the 
King. To-night I am told, that yesterday about 
five o'clock in the afternoon, one came with a 
ladder to the Great 1 Exchange, and wiped 
with a brush the great inscription that was on 
King Charles, and that there was a great bon- 
fire made in the Exchange, and people called 
out, ' God bless King Charles the Second." 2 

1 So called during the Commonwealth, in lieu of Royal. 

2 " Then the writing- in golden letters, that was engraven 
under the statue of Charles I. in the Royal Exchange (Exit 
tyrannus, Regum ultimus, anno libertatis Anglian, Anno 
Domini 1648, Januarie xxx), was washed out by a painter, 
who, in the daytime, raised a ladder, and with a pot and 
brush, washed the writing quite out, threw down his pot and 
brush, and said it should never do him any more service, in 



68 MB. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

Between the date of our last extract and the 
middle of May, great changes had taken place 
in the feelings and opinions of the people of 
England, extending more or less among all 
classes — Whigs, Tories, Puritans, Indepen- 
dents, et id genus omne ; and as will be seen by 
the following passages from the Secretary's 
Diary, an expedition which he accompanied, 
had put to sea, and was now about to bring the 
son of the beheaded monarch back u to his ain 
again. " It will be observed that the pecuniary 
distress of the royal family then residing in Hol- 
land was, at the moment of the Restoration, 
very great. The king's clothes, says the fastid- 
ious son of the defunct London tailor, " not 
being worth forty shillings." Andrew Mar- 
veil, alluding to the poor condition for clothes 
and money in which Charles Stuart was at this 
time, observes, — 

"At length, by wonderful impulse of fate, 
The people call him back to help the state ; 
And what is more, they send him money, too, 
And clothe him all from head to foot anew." 

regard that it had the honor to put out rebels' hand-writing*. 
He then came down, took away his ladder, not a misword said 
to him, and by whose order it was done was not then known. 
The merchants were glad and joyful; many people were 
gathered together, and against the Exchange made a bon- 
fire." — Rugge's Diurnal. 



MS. SECRETARY PEPYS. 69 

" May 14dh. In the morning the Hague was 
clearly to be seen by us. My Lord went up in 
his night-gown into the cuddy, to see how to 
dispose thereof for himself and us that belong 
to him, to give order for our removal to-day. 
Some nasty Dutchmen came on board to proffer 
their boats to carry things from us on shore, 
&c, to get money by us. Before noon some 
gentlemen came on board from the shore to kiss 
my Lord's hands. And by and by Mr. North 
and Dr. Clerke went to kiss the Queen of Bo- 
hemia's * hands, from my Lord, with twelve at- 
tendants from on board to wait on them, among 
which I sent my boy, 2 who, like myself, is with 
child to see any strange thing. After noon they 
came back again, after having kissed the Queen 
of Bohemia's hand, and were sent again by my 
Lord to do the same to the Prince of Orange. 3 
So I got the Captain to ask leave for me to go, 
which my Lord did give, and I, taking my boy 
and Judge Advocate with me, went in company 
with them. The weather bad ; we were sadly 
washed when we come near the shore, it being 
very hard to land there. The shore is so, all 

i Daughter of James the First. 

2 Young Edward Montagu, afterwards styled "the child." 

s Afterwards William the Third. 



70 MB. SECRETARY PEPTS. 

the country between that and the Hague, all 
sancl. The rest of the company got a coach by 
themselves ; Mr. Creed and I went in the fore 
part of a coach, wherein were two very pretty 
ladies, very fashionable, and with black patches, 
who very merrily sang all the way, and that 
very well, and were very free to kiss two blades 
that were with them. The Hague is a most 
neat place in all respects. The houses so neat 
in all places and things as is possible. Here 
we walked up and down a great while, the town 
being now very full of Englishmen, for that the 
Londoners were come on shore to-day. But 
going to see the Prince, 1 he was gone forth with 
his governor, and so we walked up and down 
the town and court to see the place ; and by the 
help of a stranger, an Englishman, we saw a 
great many places, and were made to under- 
stand many things, as the intention of "may- 
poles, which we saw there standing at every 
great man's door, of different greatness accord- 
ing to the quality of the person. About ten at 
night the Prince comes home, and we found an 
easy admission. His attendance very inconsid- 
erable as for a Prince ; but yet handsome, and 

i Henry, Duke of Gloucester, Charles the Second's youngest 
brother. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 71 

his tutor a fine man, and himself a very pretty 
boy. This done, we went to a place we had 
taken to sup in, where a sallet and two or three 
bones of mutton were provided for a matter of 
ten of us, which was very strange. The Judge 
and I lay in one press bed, there being two 
more in the same room ; my boy sleeping on a 
bench by me. 

15th. We lay till past three o'clock, then up 
and down the town, to see it by daylight ; where 
we saw the soldiers of the Prince's guard, all 
very fine, and the burghers of the town with 
their muskets as bright as silver. A school- 
master, that spoke good English and French, 
showed us the whole town, and indeed I cannot 
speak enough of the gallantry of the town. 
Every body of fashion speaks French or Latin, 
or both. The women many of them very pret- 
ty and in good habits, fashionable, and black 
spots. We bought a couple of baskets for Mrs. 
Pierce and my wife. The Judge and I to the 
Grande Salle, where the States sit in council. 
The hall is a great place, where the flags that 
they take from their enemies are all hung up ; 
and things to be sold, as in Westminster Hall, 
and not much unlike it, but that not so big. To 
a bookseller's, and bought for the love of the 



72 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

binding three books ; the French Psalms, in 
four parts, Bacon's Organon, and Farnab. Rhe- 
tor. By coach to Scheveling again, the wind 
being very high. We saw two boats overset, 
and the gallants forced to be pulled on shore by 
the heels, while their trunks, portmanteaus, 
hats, and feathers, were swimming in the sea. 
Among others, the ministers that come with the 
Commissions (Mr. Case among the rest) sad- 
ly dripped. Being in haste, I lost my Copen- 
hagen knife. A gentleman going to kiss my 
Lord's hand, from the Queen of Bohemia, and 
I hired a Dutch boat for four rix dollars to 
carry us on board. We were fain to wait a 
great while before we could get off from the 
shore, the sea being very foul. The Dutchman 
would fain have made all pay that come into 
our boat besides our company, there being many 
of our ship's company got in, but some of them 
had no money, having spent all on shore. Com- 
ing on board, we found all the Commissioners 
of the House of Lords at dinner with my Lord, 
who after dinner went away for shore. Mr. 
Morland, now Sir Samuel, was here on board, 
but I do not find that my Lord or anybody did 
give him any respect, he being looked upon by 
him and all men as a knave. Among others, 



MB. SECRETARY PEPYS. 73 

he betrayed Sir Richard Willis that married 
Dr. F. Jones's daughter, who had paid him 
1000Z. at one time by the Protector's and Secre- 
tary Thurloe's order, for intelligence that he 
sent concerning the King. In the afternoon my 
Lord called me on purpose to show me his fine 
clothes which are now come hither, and indeed 
are very rich as gold and silver can make them, 
only his sword he and I do not like. In the 
afternoon my Lord and I walked together in the 
coach two hours, talking together upon all sorts 
of discourse : as religion, wherein he is, as I 
perceive, wholly sceptical, saying, that indeed 
the Protestants as to the Church of Rome are 
wholly fanatiques ; he likes uniformity and form 
of prayer ; about State-business, among other 
things he told me that his conversion to the 
King's cause (for I was saying that I wondered 
from what time the King could look upon him 
to become his friend) commenced from his be- 
ing in the Sound, when he found what usage he 
was likely to have from a Commonwealth. My 
Lord, the Captain, and I, supped in my Lord's 
chamber, where I did perceive that he did begin 
to show me much more respect that ever he did 
yet. After supper, my Lord sent for me, in- 
tending to have me play at cards with him, but 



J 4 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

I not knowing cribbage, we fell into discourse 
of many things, and the ship rolled so much that 
I was not able to stand, and so he bid me go to 
bed. 

16th. Come in some with visits, among the 
rest one from Admiral Opdam, 1 who spoke 
Latin well, but not French nor English, whom 
my Lord made me to entertain ; he brought 
my Lord a tierce of wine and a barrel of butter 
as a present. Commissioner Pett 2 was now 
come to take care to get all things ready for the 
King on board. My Lord in his best- suit, this 
the first day, in expectation to wait upon the 
King # But Mr. Edward Pickering, coming 
from the King, brought word that the King 
would not put my Lord to the trouble of com- 
ing to him ; but that he would come to the 
shore to look upon the fleet to-day, which we 
expected, and had our guns ready to fire, and 
our scarlet waist-cloathes out and silk pendants, 

i The Dutch Admiral celebrated in Lord Dorset's ballad, 
" To all you ladies now at land." 

" Should foggy Opdam chance to know 
Our sad and dismal story : 
The Dutch would scorn so weak a foe, 

And quit their fort at Gorce. 
For what resistance can they find 
From men who've left their hearts behind ? " 
2 Naval commissioner at Chatham. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 75 

but he did not come. This evening came Mr. 
John Pickering on boards like an ass, with his 
leathers and new suit that he had made at the 
Hague. My Lord very angry for his staying 
on shore, bidding me a little before to send for 
him, telling me that he was afraid that, for his 
father's sake, he might have some mischief done 
him, unless he used the General's name. This 
afternoon Mr. Edward Pickering told me in 
what a sad, poor condition for clothes and 
money the King was, and all his attendants, 
when he came to him first from my Lord, their 
clothes not being worth forty shillings the best 
of them. And how overjoyed the King was 
when Sir J. Greenville brought him some money ; 
so joyful that he called the Princess Royal 1 and 
Duke of York to look upon it, as it lay in the 
portmanteau, before it was taken out. My 
Lord told me, too, that the Duke of York is 
made High Admiral of England. 

17th. Dr. Gierke came to tell me that he 
heard this morning, by some Dutch that are 
come on board already to see the ships, that 
there was a Portuguese taken yesterday at the 

i Mary, eldest daughter of Charles I., and widow of the 
Prince of Orange, who died 104(5-7. She died December, 
1660, leaving a son, afterwards King William the Third of 
England. 



76 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

Hague, that had a design to kill the King. 
But this I heard afterwards was only the mis- 
take upon one being observed to walk with his 
sword naked, he having lost his scabbard. Be- 
fore dinner, Mr. Edward Pickering and I, W. 
Howe, Pirn, and my boy, to Scheveling, where 
we took coach, and so to the Hague, where 
walking, intending to find one that might show 
us the King incognito, I met with Captain 
Whittington (that had formerly brought a let- 
ter to my Lord from the Mayor of London), and 
he did promise me to do it, but first we went 
and dined at a French house, but paid 10s. for 
our part of the club. At dinner, in came Dr. 
Cade, a merry mad parson of the King's. And 
they two got the child and me (the others not 
being able to crowd in) to see the King, who 
kissed the child very affectionately. Then we 
kissed his, and the Duke of York's, and the 
Princess Royal's hands. The King seemed to 
be a very sober man ; and a very splendid Court 
he hath in the number of persons of quality that 
are about him, English, very rich in habit. 
From the King to the Lord Chancellor, who did 
lie bed-rid of the gout ; he spoke very merrily 
to the child and me. After that, going to see 
the Queen of Bohemia, I met Dr. Fuller, whom 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 77 

I sent to a tavern with Mr. Edward Pickering, 
while I and the rest went to see the Queen, who 
used us very respectfully ; her hand we all 
kissed. She seems a very debonair, but a plain 
lady. In a coach of a friend of Dr. Cade, w 7 e 
went to see a house of the Princess Dowager's, 1 
in a park about a mile from the Hague, where 
there is one of the most beautiful rooms for pic- 
tures in the whole world. She had here one 
picture upon the top, with these words, dedi- 
cating it to the memory of her husband : — 
; Incomparabili marito, inconsolabilis vidua.' 2 

l§th. Very early up, and, hearing that the 
Duke of York, our Lord High Admiral, would 
go on board to-day, Mr. Pickering and I took 
wagon for Scheveling, leaving the child in Mr. 
Pierce's hands, with directions to keep within 
doors all day. But the wind being so very high 
that no boats could get off from shore, we returned 
to the Hague (having breakfasted with a gentle- 
man of the Duke's and Commissioner Pett, sent 
on purpose to give notice to my Lord of his 
coming) ; where I hear that the child is gone 
to Delfe to see the town : so we took a scout, 

i Mary, daughter of Charles the First. 

2 And yet, like the Ephesian matron, she was said to be 
married clandestinely. 



78 , MR. SECRETARY PEPTS. 

very much pleased with the manner and conver- 
sation of the passengers, where most speak 
French ; went after them and met them by the 
way. We got a smith's boy of the town to go 
along with us, and he showed us the church 
where Van Trump lies entombed with a very 
fine monument. His epitaph is concluded thus : 
— c Tandem Bello Anglico tantum non victor, 
certe invictus, vivere et vincere desiit.' There 
is a sea-fight cut in marble, with the smoke, the 
best expressed that ever I saw in my life. 
From thence to the great church, that stands in 
a fine great market place, over against the Stadt 
House, and there I saw a stately tomb of an old 
Prince of Orange, of marble and brass ; where- 
in, among other rarities, there are the angels 
with their trumpets expressed as it were crying. 
Here were very fine organs in both the churches. 
It is a most sweet town, with bridges, and a 
river in every street. In every house of enter- 
tainment there hangs in every room a poor 
man's box, it being their custom to confirm all 
bargains by putting something into the box, and 
that binds as fast as any thing. We also saw 
the Guest-house, where it was pleasant to see 
what neat preparation there is for the poor. 
We saw one poor man a-dying there. We light 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 71) 

by chance of an English house to drink in, 
where discourse of the town and the thing that 
hangs up in the Stadt-house like a bushel, which 
is a sort of punishment for offenders to carry 
through the streets over his head, which is a 
great weight. Back by water, where a pretty, 
sober, Dutch lass sat reading all the way, and 
I could not fasten any discourse upon her. We 
met with Commissioner Pett going down to the 
water side with Major Harley, 1 who is going 
upon a despatch into England. 

ldth. Up early and went to Scheveling, 
where I found no getting on board, though the 
Duke of York sent every day to see whether he 
could do it or no. By wagon to Lausdune, 
where the 365 children were born. We saw 
the hill where they say the house stood wherein 
the children were born. The basins wherein the 
male and female children were baptized do 
stand over a large table that hangs upon a wall, 
with the whole story of the thing in Dutch and 
Latin, beginning, " Margarita Herman Comi- 
tissa," &c. This thing was done about 200 
years ago. 2 

1 Afterwards Colonel Edward Harley, M. P. and Governor 
of Dunkirk. 

2 This story has been frequently printed. 



80 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

20th. (Lord's Day.) Commissioner Pett at 
last came to our lodging, and caused the boats 
to go off; so some in one boat and some in 
another, we all bid adieu to the shore. But 
through the badness of weather we were in great 
danger, and a great while before we could get 
to the ship. This hath not been known four 
days together such weather this time of year, a 
great while. Indeed, our fleet was thought to 
be in great danger, but we found all well. 

21st. The weather foul all this day also. 
After dinner, about writing one thing or other 
all day, and setting my papers in order, hear- 
ing, by letters that came hither in my absence, 
that the Parliament had ordered all persons to 
be secured, in order to a trial, that did sit as 
judges in the late King's death, and all the 
officers attending the Court. Sir John Lenthall 
moving in the House that all that had borne 
arms against the King should be exempted from 
pardon, he was called to the bar of the House, 
and after a severe reproof, he was degraded his 
knighthood. At Court I find that all things 
grow high. The old clergy talk as being sure 
of their lands again, and laugh at the Presby- 
tery ; and it is believed that the sales of the 
King's and Bishops' lands will never be con- 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 81 

firmed by Parliament, there being nothing now 
in any man's power to hinder them and the 
King from doing what they had a mind, but 
everybody willing to submit to anything. We 
expect every day to have the King and Duke 
on board as soon as it is fair. My Lord does 
nothing now, but offers all things to the pleasure 
of the Duke, as Lord High Admiral ; so that I 
am at a loss what to do. 

22cZ. Up, and trimmed by a barber that has 
not trimmed me yet, my Spaniard being on 
shore. News brought that the two Dukes are 
coming on board, which, by and by, they did, 
in a Dutch boat, the Duke of York in yellow 
trimmings, the Duke of Gloucester in grey and 
red. My Lord went in a boat to meet them ; 
the Captain, myself, and others, standing at the 
entering port. So soon as they were entered, 
we shot the guns off round the fleet. After 
that, they went to view the ship all over, and 
were most exceedingly pleased with it. They 
seem to be very fine gentlemen. After that 
done, upon the quarter deck table, under the 
awning, the Duke of York, and my Lord, Mr. 
Coventry, 1 and I, spent an hour at allotting to 

1 Sir William Coventry, M. P., to whom Pepys became so 
warmly attached afterwards. 

6 



82 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

every ship their service, in their return to Eng- 
land ; which being done they went to dinner, 
where the table was very full, the two Dukes at 
the upper end, my Lord Opdara next on one 
side, and my Lord on the other. Two guns given 
to every man while he was drinking the King's 
health, and so likewise to the Duke's health. 
I took down Monsieur d'Esquier to the great 
cabin below, and dined with him in state along 
with only one or two friends of his. All din- 
ner, the harper belonging to Captain Sparling 
played to the Dukes. After dinner, the Dukes 
and my Lord to sea, the Vice and Rear-Admi- 
rals and I in a boat after them. After that 
done, they made to the shore in the Dutch boat 
that brought them, and I got into the boat with 
them ; but the shore was full of people to ex- 
pect their coming. When we came near the 
shore, my Lord left them, and come into his 
own boat, and General Pen and I with him ; 
my Lord being very well pleased with this day's 
work. By the time we came on board again, 
news is sent us that the King is on shore ; so 
my Lord fired all his guns round twice, and all 
the fleet after him, which, in the end, fell into 
disorder, which seemed very handsome. The 
gun over against my cabin I fired myself to the 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 83 

King, which was the first time that he had been 
saluted by his own ships since this change ; but, 
holding my head too much over the gun, I had 
almost spoiled my right eye. Nothing in the 
world but giving of guns almost all this day. 
In the evening we began to remove cabins ; I 
to the carpenter's cabin, and Dr. Gierke with 
me, who came on board this afternoon, having 
been twice ducked in the sea to-day, and Mr. 
North and John Pickering the like. Many of 
the King's servants came on board to-night ; 
and so many Dutch of all sorts come to see the 
ship till it was quite dark, that we could not 
pass by one another, which was a great trouble 
to us all. This afternoon, Mr. Downing (who 
was knighted yesterday by the King) was here 
on board, and had a ship for his passage into 
England with his lady and servants." 

Good Mr. Pepys is so much occupied with 
various duties that he had no opportunity of 
visiting his family until the fourth week of the 
following month, when we have this entry : 
" June 22. To bed the first time since my 
coming from sea in my own house, for which 
God be praised." On the 8th of July, we have 
this record : " To Whitehall Chapel, where I 
got in with ease, by going before the Lord 



84 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

Chancellor with Mr. Kipps. Here I heard very 
good musique, the first time I ever remember 
to have heard organs, and singing men in sur- 
plices, in my life. The Bishop of Chichester 
(King) preached before the King, and made a 
great flattering sermon, which I did not like, 
that the clergy should meddle with matters of 
state. " The 10th is an important day with. 
Samuel. It was the day that his patron and 
kinsman obtained the title of Earl of Sand- 
wich, and was also important on other accounts. 
" This day I put on my new silk suit, the first 
that ever I wore in my life." It had further 
interest. Pepys had an eye for pretty women, 
and that day he took his wife to " a great wed- 
ding of Nan Hartlib's to Mynheer Roder, which 
was kept at Goring House with great state, 
cost, and able company. But among all the 
beauties there my wife was thought the great- 
est." — " Home, with my mind pretty quiet : 
not returning, as I said I would, to see the 
bride put to bed." A few months later, he 
says, " I did send for a cup of tee (a China 
drink) of which I never had drank before ; " l 

1 Tea was first introduced into Europe by the Dutch, proba- 
bly about the beginning* of the seventeenth century; but it 
was so little known in England, in the middle of that century, 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 85 

and on the 22d of October, " Mr. Moore tells 
me, among other things, that the Duke of York 
is now sorry for his amour with my Lord 
Chancellor's daughter, 1 who is now brought to 
bed of a boy." On the 3d of January, 1661, 
we find this entry : " To the Theatre, where 
was acted ' Beggars Bush,' it being very well 
done : and here the first time that ever I saw 
women come upon the stage." On the 10th of 
the same month, Samuel says, " By coach to 
the Theatre and there saw ' The Scornful 
Lady/ 2 now done by a woman, which makes 
the play appear much better than ever it did to 
me ; " and a few days afterwards, " To the 
play-house, and there saw ' The Changeling,' 3 
the first time it hath been acted these twenty 
years, and it takes exceedingly." From the 
frequent entries of this character, it is very 
evident that our diarist was a constant habitue 
of the TYliite-fryars and other London theatres. 
February 23, Pepys writes, u This is now 28 

that, in 1604, the East India Company presented two pounds 
two ounces of it to the king as a rare, and therefore valuable 
offering. 

1 Mary Hyde, afterwards Duchess of York. 

2 A comedy, by the literary partners and contemporaries of 
Bhakspeare — Beaumont and Fletcher. 

3 A tragedy, by Thomas Middleton. 



86 MR, SECRETARY PEPYS. 

years since I am born. And blessed be God in 
a full content, and a great hope to be a happy 
man in all respects both to myself and friends. 

27th. I called for a dish of fish, which we 
had for dinner, this being the first day of Lent : 
and I do intend to try whether I can keep it or 
no." As will be seen by the following confes- 
sion, the honest old truepenny broke down : — 

" 28th. Notwithstanding my resolution, yet 
for want of other victuals, I did eat flesh this 
Lent, but am resolved to eat as little as I can." 

For a philosopher and sinner, Samuel was 
one of the most jovial dogs who ever lived, as 
Sir Godfrey Kneller's portrait, from which our 
frontispiece is engraved, fully indicates. He 
was very fond of nodes amhrosiance, and could 
have drank sack with Sir John of glorious 
memory. He sang and a made merry" with 
his wife and friends in the public houses (as 
was the custom of the day) to a prodigious 
extent. " Good drink," venison pastries, and 
hot capons figure conspicuously in the pages of 
our annalist. Good Mistress Elizabeth was 
not as companionable in his revelries as she 
should have been, according to Samuel's rather 
enlarged notions of sociality, and was doubtless 
often an unwilling witness of his junketings 



MB. SECRETARY PEPYS. 87 

with female friends. Not a little of her discon- 
tent, which peeps forth in occasional bickerings, 
was the consequence of Pepys's fondness for 
these bacchanal pastimes, joined to that old and 
inveterate source of female misery — spretce 
injuria for nice ; for the lady was assuredly 
jealous, and not without reason ; whereat says 
Samuel, " I greatly troubled, but did presently 
satisfy her ! " The Secretary was much given 
to flirting with " mighty pretty women ; " with 
good Mistress Knipp ; with Mrs. Pierce, the 
surgeon's wife ; would squeeze the hand of a 
u pretty maid " whom he did not know, but 
whose beauty attracted him on his way to 
church, and frequently saluted with a kiss 
Rebecca Allen, the storekeeper's daughter at 
Chatham. Some of his meetings with this lady 
are very amusing. She appears first on the 
occasion of an official visit paid by him to 
Chatham in company w T ith Sir William Batten, 
commissioner of the navy, who entertained, 
amongst others, " Mr. Allen and two daughters 
of his, both very tall, and the youngest very 
handsome, so much so I could not forbear to 
love her exceedingly." On the following day, 
he met her at an evening party, and accompa- 
nied the fair damsel to her father's house, she 



80 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

seeming "to be desirous of his favors." He 
staid there till " two o'clock in the morning, 
and was most exceedingly merry, and had the 
opportunity of kissing Mistress Rebecca very 
often/' Pretty well for a married man on a 
second day's acquaintance ! Again she appears 
as Becky Allen, and finally as Mrs. Jewkes, 
" who is a very fine, proper lady, as most I 
know, and well dressed. . . . She and I to talk, 
and then had our old stories up, and there I 
had the liberty to salute her often, and she 
mighty free in kindness to me." Few names 
occur more frequently in the Diary than that of 
Mrs. Knipp. She was an actress, the contem- 
porary of Nell Gwynn, and Pepys's most inti- 
mate female friend. She was obviously the cause 
of much disquietude to the Secretary's wife. 
"After the play, we went into the house and 
spoke with Knipp, who went abroad with vis to 
the Neat Houses in the way to Chelsy : and 
there, in a box in a tree, we sat and sang, and 
talked and eat : my wife out of humor, as she 
always is, when this woman is by." 

Samuel was indeed a sad dog, much given 
to flirting with " mighty pretty women," and 
evidently not less fond of osculatory salutations 
than the stout old Roman who said to Lesbia, 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 89 

" Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred, 
then another thousand, then a second hundred, 
then a full thousand more, then a hundred. 
Then, after we have interchanged many thou- 
sand, we will rub out the score, so that we 
can't tell ourselves how many." 

" September 7. Having appointed the young 
ladies at the Wardrobe to go with them to the 
play to-day, my wife and I took them to the 
theatre, where we seated ourselves close to the 
King, and Duke of York, and Madame Palmer, 
which was great content ; and indeed I can 
never enough admire her beauty. And here 
was c Bartholomew Fayre,' x with the puppet- 
show, acted to-day, which had not been these 
forty years, (it being so satirical against puri- 
tanism, they durst not till now, which is strange 
they should already dare to do it, and the King 
do countenance it,) but I do never a whit like 
it the better for the puppets, but rather the worse. 
Thence home with the ladies, it being by reason 
of our staying a great while for the King's 
coming, and the length of the play, near nine 
o'clock before it was done. 

11 th. To Dr. Williams, who did carry me 

1 A comedy by Ben Jonson, first acted in 1614. 



90 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

into his garden, where he hath abundance of 
grapes : and he did show me how a dog that he 
hath do kill all the cats that come thither to 
kill his pigeons, and do afterwards bury them ; 
and do it with so much care that they shall be 
quite covered ; that if the tip of the tail hangs 
out he will take up the cat again, and dig the 
hole deeper. Which is very strange ; and he 
tells me, that he do believe that he hath killed 
above 100 cats. 

12th. To my Lady's to dinner at the Ward- 
robe ; and in my way upon the Thames, I saw 
the King's new pleasure-boat that is come now 
for the King to take pleasure in above bridge ; 
and also two Gundaloes * that are lately brought, 
which are very rich and fine. 

2Ath. Letters from sea, that speak of my 
Lord's being well ; and his action, though not 
considerable of any side, at Argier. 

2oth. Sir W. Pen told me that I need not 
fear any reflection upon my Lord for their ill 
success at Argier, for more could not be done. 
To my Lord Crewe's, and dined with him, 
where I was used with all imaginable kindness 

1 Gondolas. Davenant uses the expression, " Step into one 
of your peascod boats, whose tilts are not so sumptuous as 
the roofs of Gundaloes." 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 91 

both from him and her. And I see that he is 
afraid my Lord's reputation will a little suffer 
in common talk by this late success ; but there 
is no help for it now. The Queen of England, 
(as she is now owned and called) I hear doth 
keep open Court, and distinct at Lisbone. 

21th. At noon, met my wife at the Ward- 
robe ; and there dined, where we found Captain 
Country, (my little Captain that I loved, who 
carried me to the Sound,) with some grapes 
and melons from my Lord at Lisbone. The 
first that ever I saw ; but the grapes are rare 
things. . . . Here we staid and supped too, 
and after my wife had put up some of the 
grapes in a basket for to be sent to the King, 
we took coach and home, where we found a 
hampire of melons sent to me also." 

Occasionally, if Pepys witnesses a play ill 
acted, he finds compensation in sitting near 
some " pretty and ingenious lady," or is con- 
soled by a gracious nod of recognition from the 
Duchess of Cleveland (a woman, to use the 
language of Hume, " prodigal, rapacious, dis- 
solute, violent, revengeful"), or her beautiful 
rival, la belle Stewart, afterwards Duchess of 
Portsmouth , or from the fair and frail Nelly 
Gwynn. Early in January, 1663, Pepys re- 



92 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

cords that the Duke of York and his wife did 
honor a play of Kelligrew's by their presence, 
and did much edify the spectators by their con- 
duct. " They did show," writes the immortal 
journalist, " some impertinent and methought 
unnatural dalliances there before the whole 
world, such as kissing of hands, and leaning 
one upon the other." The following entries 
occur during the year 1664: — 

" January 6th. This morning I began a prac- 
tice which I find by the ease I do it with, that I 
shall continue, it saving me money and time : 
that is, to trim myself with a razor : which 
pleases me mightily. 

30th. This evening I tore some old papers : 
among others a romance which under the title 
of ' Love a Cheate,' I began ten years ago at 
Cambridge : and reading it over to-night, I 
liked it very well, and wondered a little at my- 
self at my vein at that time when I wrote it, 
doubting that I cannot do so well now if I 
would try. 

March 18th. Up betimes, and walked to my 
brother's, where a great while putting things in 
order against anon ; and so to Wotton, my shoe- 
maker, and there got a pair of shoes blacked on 
the soles against anon for me ; so to my broth- 



KB. SECRETARY PEPYS. 93 

er's. To church, 1 and, with the grave-maker, 
chose a place for my brother to lie in, just under 
my mother's pew. But to see how a man's 
tombes (bones?) are at the mercy of such a 
fellow, that for sixpence he would, as his own 
words were, ' I will justle them together but 
I will make room for him ; ' speaking of the 
fulness of the middle aisle, where. he was to lie ; 
and that he would, for my father's sake, do my 
brother, that is dead, all the civility he can ; 
which was to disturb other corps that are not 
quite rotten, to make room for him ; and me- 
thought his manner of speaking it was very re- 
markable ; as of a thing that now was iu his 
power to do a man a courtesy or not. I dressed 
myself, and so did my servant Besse ; and so 
to my brother's again ; whither, though invited, 
as the custom is, at one or two o'clock, they 
come not till four or five. But, at last, one 
after another, they come, many more than I 
bid : and my reckoning that I bid was one hun- 
dred and twenty ; but I believe there was nearer 
one hundred and fifty. Their service was six 
biscuits apiece, and what they pleased of burnt 

1 St. Bride's, of which Richard Pearson, D. D., the vicar, 
officiated at the funeral. " March 18, 1663-4, Mr. Thomas 
Pepys." — Burial Register of St. Bride's, Fleet Street. 



94 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

claret. My cousin Joyce Norton kept the wine 
and cakes above ; and did give out to them that 
served, who had white gloves given therm But, 
above all, I am beholden to Mrs. Holden, who 
was most kind, and did take mighty pains not 
only in getting the house and everything else 
ready, but this day in going up and down to see 
the house filled and served, in order to mine and 
their great content, I think : the men sitting by 
themselves in some rooms, and the women by 
themselves in others, very close, but yet room 
enough. Anon to church, walking out into the 
street to the conduit, and so across the street : 
and had a very good company along with the 
corpse. And, being come to the grave as above. 
Dr. Pierson, the minister of the parish, did read 
the service for burial ; and so I saw my poor 
brother laid into the grave : and so all broke 
up, and I and my wife, and Madam Turner and 
her family, to her brother's, and by and by fell 
to a barrel of oysters, cake, and cheese, of 
Mr. Honiwood's, with him, in his chamber and 
below, being too merry for so late a sad work. 
But, Lord ! to see how the world makes nothing 
of the memory of a man, an hour after he is 
dead ! And, indeed, I must blame myself; for, 
though at the sight of him dead and dying, I 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 95 

had real grief for a while, while he was in my 
sight, yet presently after, and ever since, I have 
had very little grief indeed for him. 

19th. My wife and I alone, having a good 
hen, with eggs, to dinner, with great content. 
Then to my brother's, where I spent the after- 
noon in paying some of the charges of the 
burial. 

21st. This day the Houses of Parliament 
met ; and the King met them, with the Queen 
with him. And he made a speech to them : 
among other things, discoursing largely of the 
plots abroad against him and the peace of the 
kingdom ; and that the dissatisfied party had 
great hopes upon the effect of the Act for a Tri- 
ennial Parliament granted by his father, which 
he desired them to peruse, and, I think, repeal. 
So the Houses did retire to their own House, 
and did order the Act to be read to-morrow 
before them ; and I suppose it will be repealed, 
though I believe much against the will of a good 
many that sit there. 

23c?. To the Trinity House, and there dined 
very well : and good discourse among the old 
men. Among other things, they observed, that 
there are but two seamen in the Parliament, 
viz., Sir W. Batten and Sir W. Pen, and not 



96 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

above twenty or thirty merchants ; which is a 
strange thing in an island. In the evening, my 
Lady Jemimah, Paulina, and Madame Picker- 
ing came to see us, but my wife would not be 
seen, being unready. Very merry with them ; 
they mightily talking of their thrifty living for 
a fortnight before their mother came to town, 
and other such simple talk, and of their merry 
life at Brampton, at rny father's this winter. 

April 26th. My wife gone this afternoon to 
the burial of my she-cousin Scott, a good wo- 
man : and it is a sad consideration how the 
Pepys decay, and nobody almost that I know in 
a present way of increasing them." 

On the last day of May, our worthy and 
observant annalist mentions " that upon Sun- 
day night, being the King's birthday, the King 
was at my Lady Castlcmaine's lodgings, over 
the shelter-gate at Lambert's lodgings, dancing 
with fiddlers all night most." 

Pepys also remarks that he went with his 
friend Mr. Povy, who, Evelyn, in his Diary, 
July 1, 1664, informs us, lived in Lincoln's Inn, 
home to dinner, " where extraordinary cheer; 
and after dinner, up and down to see his house. 
And in a word, methinks, for his perspective in 
the little closet : his room floored above with 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 97 

woods of several colors, like, but above the best 
cabinet-work I ever saw : his grotto and vault, 
with his bottles of wine, and a well therein, to 
keep them cool : his furniture of all sorts : his 
bath at the top of the house, good pictures, 
and his manner of eating and drinking, do sur- 
pass all that ever I did see of one man in all 
my life." 

Should any dyspeptic, who is unable to in- 
dulge in good cheer, and therefore feels a con- 
tempt for meat and wine, or any disciple of 
Father Mathew, be inclined to take exception to 
Samuel's constant recurrence to the subject of 
eating and drinking, we would say, that he is in 
this respect kept in countenance by the customs 
of the age in which he lived. Lady Fanshawe, 
a contemporary, in her delightful Memoirs, con- 
stantly refers, with almost as much gusto and 
genuine relish, to the gratification of feasting, 
as does the worthy Pepys. This woman of wit 
and beauty, who, in a corrupt and dissolute age 
was a true and virtuous wife, displays the same 
love of pomp and ceremony, the same fondness 
for dress and show, which possessed the lively 
Secretary. As to her honest likings for the good 
things of this life, — which are confessed with 
the most engaging naivete, — she never stops at 



98 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

a town, or describes a country, without a par- 
ticular and minute inventory of its delicious prod- 
ucts and artificial luxuries. Lord Clarendon, 
another of Pepys's contemporaries, confessed 
that he " indulged his palate very much, and 
even took some delight in eating and drinking, 
but without any approach to luxury ; " while all 
will remember the incident of Milton praising 
his wife for the well-cooked dish. To come 
down a few score years, who does not remember 
Dr. Johnson's partialities in eating and drinking, 
Scott's love for the dishes of his native land, 
or dear Charles Lamb's exquisite relish of 
roast pig? 

Samuel certainly was no saint, and seems to 
have been a perfect giant in tavernizing and 
junketing generally, if we may judge by the 
almost daily and certainly weekly episodes in 
which fat capons, venison pasties, or mulled 
sack, and other " good drink," alternate with 
allusions to kissing Mistress Knipp, or " a 
pretty maid ; " but, as Horace has it, " Ali- 
quando bonus dormitat," &c. We cannot 
claim for him much resemblance to the heroes 
of novels, or the subjects of biography, who 
are too generally described as 

" Faultless monsters, whom the world ne'er saw." 



MM. SECRETARY PEPYS. 99 

Indeed, Kneller's portrait, with the high bluff 
cheeks and double chin, proclaims Pepys to have 
been anything but an anchorite, but rather a 
man who would have sympathized with the 
Illinois farmer, who told Richard Cobclen, while 
entertaining the eminent Englishman with some 
fine peach brandy, that he had laid away two 
hundred barrels of it for his old age ! " Cer- 
tainly," as the great advocate of free trade 
afterwards remarked to the writer, " a most 
extraordinary provision for his declining years." 

Something too much of this. Let us now 
continue our citations from the Diary : — 

" June 1st. By water to Woolwich, all the 
way reading Mr. Spencer's 1 book of Prodigies, 
which is most ingeniously writ, both for matter 
and style. Southwell, 2 Sir W. Pen's friend, tells 
me the very sad news of my Lord Teviott's 
and nineteen more commission officers being" 
killed at Tangier by the Moores, 3 by an ambush 

i John Spencer, D. D., who died in 1695, was also the author 
of a celebrated work, Be Legibus Hebrseorum. His Discourse 
concerning Prodigies first appeared in 1663 ; the 2d edition, of 
1665, contains likewise a Discourse concerning Vulgar Proph- 
ecies. 

2 Afterwards Sir Robert Southwell. 

3 The particulars of the loss at Tangiers is given in The 
Intelligencer, 6th June, 1664. 



100 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

of the enemy upon them, while they were sur- 
veying their lines : which is very sad, and he 
says afflicts the King much. To the King's 
house, and saw ' The Silent Woman ; ' but 
methought not so well done or so good a play 
as I formerly thought it to be. Before the play 
was done, it fell such a storm of hail, that we, 
in the middle of the pit, were fain to rise ; and 
all the house in a disorder. 1 

2d. To a Committee of Tangier about pro- 
viding provisions, money, and men ; but it is 
strange to see how poorly and brokenly things 
are done of the greatest consequence, and how 
soon the memory of this great man is gone, or, 
at least, out of mind by the thoughts of who 
goes next, which is not yet known. My Lord 
of Oxford, Muskerry, and several others, are 
discoursed of. It seems my Lord Teviott's 
design was to go a mile and a half out of the 
town, to cut down a wood in which the enemy 
did use to lie in ambush. He had sent several 
spies : but all brought word that the way was 
clear, and so might be for anybody's discovery 

i The Blackfriar's Theatre was entirely roofed over, and 
had a pit, instead of a mere enclosed yard ; whilst the stage 
portion alone of the public playhouses was protected from the 
weather. The house was lighted by a cupola. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 101 

of an enemy before you are upon them. There 
they were all snapped, he and all his officers, 
and about two hundred men, as they say ; there 
being left now in the garrison but four captains. 
This happened the 3d of May last, being not 
before that day twelvemonth of his entering 
into his government there ; but, at his going 
out in the morning, he said to some of his offi- 
cers, ' Gentlemen, let us look to ourselves, for 
it was this day three years that so many brave 
Englishmen were knocked on the head by the 
Moores, when Fines 1 made his sally out.' 

3d. At the Committee for Tangier all the 
afternoon — the Duke of York and Mr. Coven- 
try, for ought I see, being the only two that do 
anything like men ; Prince Rupert do nothing 
but swear and laugh, with an oath or two. 

4dh. I went forth with J. Noble, who tells 
me that he will secure us against Cave — that 
though he knows, and can prove it, yet nobody 
else can prove it, to be Tom's child ; that the 
bond was made by one Hudson, a scrivener, 
next to the Fountain tavern, in the Old Bayly ; 
that the children were born, and christened, and 
entered in the parish-book of St. Sepulchre's, 

i Major Fiennes, whose regiment formed part of the gar- 
rison at Tangier. 



102 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

by the name of Anne and Elizabeth Taylor ; 
and he will give us security against Cave if we 
pay him the money. To the Duke, and was 
giving him an account how matters go, and of 
the necessity there is of a power to press sea- 
men, without which we cannot really raise men 
for this fleet of twelve sail, besides that it will 
assert the King's power of pressing, which at 
present is somewhat doubted, and will make the 
Dutch believe that we are in earnest. To the 
Committee of Tangier all the afternoon, where 
still the same confused doings, and my Lord Fitz- 
Harding now added to the Committee, which 
will signify much. Mr. Coventry discoursing 
this noon about Sir W. Batten, what a sad fel- 
low he is, told me how the King told him the 
other day how Sir W. Batten, being in the ship 
with him and Prince Rupert when they expected 
to fight with Warwicke, did walk up and down 
sweating, with a napkin under his throat to dry 
up his sweat ; and that Prince Rupert, being a 
most jealous man, and particularly of Batten, do 
walk up and down swearing bloodily to the King, 
that Batten had a mind to betray them to-day, and 
that the napkin was a signal : ' But, by God,' 
says he, 'if things go ill, the first thing I will 
do is to shoot him.' He discoursed largely and 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 103 

bravely to me concerning the different sort of 
valors, the active and passive valor. For the 
latter, he brought as an instance General Blake, 
who, in the defending of Taunton and Lyme for 
the Parliament, did, through his sober sort of 
valor, defend it the most opiniastrement that 
ever any man did anything ; and yet never was 
the man that ever made an attaque by land or 
sea, but rather avoided it on all, even fair occa- 
sions. On the other side, Prince Rupert, the 
boldest attaquer in the world for personal cour- 
age : and yet, in the defending of Bristol, no 
man ever did anything worse, he wanting the 
patience and seasoned head to consult and advise 
for defence, and to bear with the evils of a siege. 
The like he says of my Lord Teviott, who 
was the boldest adventurer of his person in the 
world ; and from a mean man in few years was 
come to this greatness of command and repute 
only by the death of all his officers, he many 
times having the luck of being the only survivor 
of them all, by venturing upon services for the 
King of France that nobody else would ; and 
yet no man upon a defence, he being all fury 
and of no judgment in a fight. He tells me, 
above all, of the Duke of York, that he is more 
himself and more of judgment is at hand in him, 



104 MR, SECRETARY PEPYS. 

in the middle of a desperate service, than at 
other times, as appeared in the business of Dun- 
kirke, wherein no man ever did braver things, 
or was in hotter service in the close of that day, 
being surrounded with enemies ; and then, con- 
trary to the advice of all about him, his counsel 
carried himself and the rest through them safe, 
by advising that he might make his passage 
with but a dozen with him : " For," says he, 
" the enemy cannot move after me so fast with 
a great body, and with a small one we shall 
be enough to deal with them ; " and, though he 
is a man naturally martial to the hottest degree, 
yet a man that never in his life talks one word 
of himself or service of his own, but only that 
he saw such or such a thing, and lays it down 
for a maxim that a Hector can have no cour- 
age. He told me also, as a great instance of 
some men, that the Prince of Conde's excellence 
is, that there not being a more furious man in 
the world, danger in fight never disturbs him 
more than just to make him civil, and to com- 
mand in words of great obligation to his officers 
and men, but without any the least disturbance 
in his judgment or spirit. 

6th. By barge with Sir W. Batten to Trinity 
House. Here were my Lord Sandwich, Mr. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 105 

Coventry, my Lord Craven, and others. A 
great dinner, and good company. Mr. Prin, 
also, who would not drink any health, no, not 
the King's, but sat down with his hat on all the 
while ; but nobody took notice of it to him 
at all. 

8th. With Creed talking of many things, 
among others of my Lord's going so often to 
Chelsey, and he do tell me that his daughters 
do perceive all, and do hate the place and the 
young woman, Mrs. Betty Becke ; for my Lord 
who sent them thither, only for a disguise for 
his going thither, will come under a pretence 
to see them, and pack them out of doors to 
the Parke, and stay behind with her : but now r 
the young ladies are gone to their mother to 
Kensington. 

11th. With my w T ife only to take the air, it 
being very warm and pleasant, to Bo we and 
Old Ford : and thence to Hackney. There 
light, and played at shuffleboard, eat cream and 
good cherries ; and so with good refreshment 
home. 

13th. Spent the whole morning reading of some 
old Navy books ; wherein the order that was ob- 
served in the Navy then, above what it is now, 
is very observable. Mr. Coventry did talk of 



106 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

a History of the Navy of England, how fit it 
were to be writ ; and he did say that it hath 
been in his mind to propose to me the writing 
of the History of the late Dutch war, which I 
am glad to hear, it being a thing I much desire, 
and sorts mightily with my genius ; and if done 
well, may recommend me much. So he says 
he will get me an order for making of searches 
to all records, &c, in order thereto, and I shall 
take great delight in doing of it. 

14,th. By coach to Kensington. In the way 
overtaking Mr. Laxton, the apothecary, with his 
wife and daughters — very fine young lasses — 
in a coach ; and so both of us to my Lady Sand- 
wich, who hath lain this fortnight here, at 
Dean Hodge's. 1 Much company come hither 
to-day — my Lady Carteret, &c, Sir William 
Wheeler and his lady, and, above all, Mr. Becke, 
of Chelsey, and wife and daughter, my Lord's 
mistress, and one that hath not one good feature 
in her face, and yet is a fine lady, of a fine taille, 
and very well carriaged, and mighty discreet. 
I took all the occasion I could to discourse with 



i Thomas Hodges, vicar of Kensington, and rector of St. 
Peter's, Cornhill. He had been, in September, 1661, preferred 
to the deanery of Hereford, which he held with his two livings 
till his death, in 1672. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 107 

the young ladies in her company to give occa- 
sion to her to talk, which now and then she 
did, and that mighty finely, and is, I perceive, 
a woman of such an air, as I wonder the less 
at my Lord's favor to her, and I dare warrant 
him she hath brains enough to entangle him. 
Two or three hours we were in her company, 
going into Sir H. Finche's garden, 1 and seeing 
the fountain, and singing there with the ladies ; 
and a mighty fine cool place it is, with a great 
laver of water in the middle, and the bravest 
place for music I ever heard. After much 
mirth, discoursing to the ladies in defence of 
the city against the country or court, and giv- 
ing them occasion to invite themselves to-mor- 
row to me to dinner to my venison pasty, I got 
their mother's leave, and so good night, very 
well pleased with my day's work, and, above 
all, that I have seen my Lord's mistress. 

15th. I got Captain Witliam to tell me the 
whole story of my Lord Teviott's misfortune ; 
for he was upon the guard with his horse near 
the town, when at a distance he saw the enemy 
appear upon a hill, a mile and a half off, and 
made up to them, and with much ado escaped 
himself; but what became of my Lord he 

l Now Kensington Gardens. 



108 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

neither knows nor thinks that anybody but the 
enemy can tell. Our loss was about four hun- 
dred. But he tells me that the greater wonder 
is, that my Lord Teviott met no sooner with 
such a disaster ; for every day he did commit 
himself to more probable danger than this, for 
now he had the assurance of all his scouts that 
there was no enemy thereabouts ; whereas, he 
used every day to go out with two or three with 
him, to make his discoveries in greater danger, 
and yet the man that could not endure to have 
anybody else to go a step out of order to endan- 
ger himself. He concludes him to be the man 
of the hardest fate to lose so much honor at one 
blow that ever was. His relation being done, 
he parted ; and I home. At home, to look 
after things for dinner. And anon at noon 
comes Mr. Creed by chance, and by and by the 
three young ladies : and very merry we were 
with our pasty, very well baked ; and a good 
dish of roasted chickens ; pease, lobsters, 
strawberries. And after dinner to cards : and 
about five o'clock, by water down to Green- 
wich ; and up to the top of the hill, and there 
played upon the ground at cards. And so to* 
the Cherry Garden, 1 and then by water singing 

1 The Cherry Garden was at Rotherhithe. 



MB. SECRETARY PEPYS. 109 

finely to the Bridge, and there landed ; * and so 
took boat again, and to Somerset House. And 
by this time, the tide being against us, it was 
past ten of the clock ; and such a troublesome 
passage, in regard to my Lady Paulina's fear- 
fulness, that in all my life I never did see any 
poor wretch in that condition." Being come 
hither, there waited for them their coach ; 
but, it being so late, I doubted what to do how 
to get them home. After half an hour's stay 
in the street, I sent my wife home by coach 
with Mr. Creed's boy : and myself and Creed 
in the coach home with them. But, Lord ! the 
fear that my Lady Paulina was in every step 
of the way : and indeed, at this time of the 
night, it was no safe thing to go that road ; so 
that I was even afraid myself, though I ap- 
peared otherwise. 2 We come safe, however, to 
their house; where we knocked . them up, my 
Lady and all the family being in bed. So put 

1 To avoid the (Linger, of what was called " shooting the 
bridge." 

2 We have here a curious picture of the dreadful state of 
the streets in London in 1(>()4. No improvement of what + hey 
were a century before, when they were described ns " very 
foul, fuU of pits and sloughs, very perilous and noxious " 
(Knight's London), appears to have taken place. The alarm 
of Lady Paulina and Pepys at night was not surprising. 



110 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

them into doors ; and, leaving them with the 
maids, bade them good night. Then into the 
town 1 — Creed and I, it being about twelve 
o'clock and past : and to several houses — inns, 
but could get no lodging, all being in bed. At 
last, we found some people drinking and roar- 
ing ; and, after drinking, got an ill bed. 

16th. I lay in my drawers, and stockings, 
and waistcoat till five of the clock, and so up ; 
and, being well pleased with our frolic, walked 
to Knightsbridge, and there eat a mess of cream, 
and so to St. James's, and I to Whitehall, and 
took coach, and found my wife well got home 
last night, and now in bed. The talk upon the 
'Change is, that De Ruyter is dead, with fifty 
men of his own ship, of the plague, at Cales : 
that the Holland Embassador here do endeavor 
to sweeten us with fair words : and things like 
to be peaceable. With my cousin Richard 
Pepys upon the 'Chauge, about supplying us 
with bewpers 2 from Norwich, which I should 
be glad of, if cheap. 

1 Kensington. 

2 This word is used by Spenser for companions or equals. 
Pieces of cloth, each containing twenty-five yards, were 
known by the name of beaupers ,• but the word has fallen into 
disuse. It appears from one of the Pepys papers of a later 
date that bewpers were used as a material for flags. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. Ill 

20th. I to the Duke, where we did our usual 
business. And among other discourse of the 
Dutch, he was merrily saying how they print 
that Prince Rupert, Duke of Albemarle, and 
my Lord Sandwich, are to be Generals : and 
soon after is to follow them 4 Vieux Pen : ' 
and so the Duke called him in mirth Old Pen. 1 
They have, it seems, lately wrote to the King, 
to assure him that their setting-out ships was 
only to defend their fishing-trade, and to stay 
near home — not to annoy the King's subjects : 
and to desire that he would do the like with his 
ships : which the King laughs at, but yet is 
troubled they should think him such a child, to 
suffer them to bring home their fish and East 
India Company's ships,, and then they will not 
care for us. Meeting Pickering, he tells us 
how my Lady last week went to see Mrs. 
Becke, the mother ; and by and by the daughter 
come in, but that my Lady do say herself, as 
he says, that she knew not for what reason, for 
she never knew they had a daughter, which I 
do not believe. She was troubled, and her 
heart did rise as soon as she appeared, and 
seems the most ugly woman that ever she saw. 
This, if true, were strange, but I believe it is 

i He was only forty-two years of age. 



112 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

not. To my Lord's lodgings : and was merry 
with the young ladies, who make a great story 
of their appearing before their mother the 
morning after we carried them, the last week, 
home so late ; and that their mother took it 
very well, at least, without any auger. Here 
I heard how the rich widow, my Lady Gold, is 
married to one Neale, 1 after he had received a 
box on the ear by her brother, 2 who was there 
a sentinel, in behalf of some courtier, at the 
door ; but made him draw, and wounded him. 
She called Neale up to her, and sent for a 
priest, married presently, and went to bed. 
The brother sent to the Court, and had a 
sergeant sent for Neale ; but Neale sent for 
him up to be seen in bed, and she owned him 
for her husband : and so all is past. It seems 
Sir H. Bennet did look after her. My Lady 
very pleasant. After dinner come in Sir 
Thomas Crewe and Mr. Sidney (Montagu), 
lately come from France, who is grown a little, 
and a pretty youth he is, but not so improved 
as they did give him out to be, but like a child 
still. But yet I can perceive he hath good 
parts and good inclinations. 

21st. Meeting Mr. Moore, I perceive by him 

1 Thomas Neale. 2 She had four brothers. 



ME. SECRETARY PEPYS. 113 

my Lord's business of his family and estate 
goes very ill, and runs in debt mightily. I 
would to God I were clear of it, both as to my 
own money and the bond of £1000, which I 
stand debtor for him in, to my cousin Thomas 
Pepys. 

22d. To the 'Change and Coffee House, 
where great talk of the Dutch preparing of 
sixty sail of ships. The plague grows mightily 
among them, both at sea and land. 

23c?. AY. Howe was with me this afternoon, 
to desire some things to be got ready for my 
Lord against his going down to his ship, which 
will be soon ; for it seems the King and both 
the Queens intend to visit him. The Lord 
knows how my Lord will get out of this 
charge ; for Mr. Moore tells me to-day that he 
is £10,000 in debt : and this will, with many 
other things, that daily grow upon him, while 
he minds his pleasure as he do, set him further 
backward. 

2Uh. To the City granaries, w T here, it seems, 
every company have their granary, 1 and obliged 

1 From the commencement of the reign of Henry VIII., or 
perhaps earlier, it was the custom of the city of London to 
provide against scarcity by requiring each of the chartered 
companies to keep in store a certain quantity of corn, which 
was to be renewed from time to time, and when required for 
8 



114 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

to keep such a quantity of corn always there, 
or, at a time of scarcity, to issue it at so much 
a bushel ; and a fine thing it is to see their 
stores of all sorts, for piles for the bridge, and 
for pipes. To White Hall ; and Mr. Pierce 
showed me the Queen's bed-chamber, and her 
closet where she had nothing but some pretty 
pious pictures, and books of devotion ; and her 
holy water at her head as she sleeps, with a 
clock by her bed-side, wherein a lamp burns 
that tells her the time of the night at any time. 
Thence with him to the Park, and there met 
the Queen coming from Chapel, with her Maids 
of Honor, all in silver-lace gowns again ; which 
is new to me, and that which I did not think 
would have been brought up again. Thence 
he carried me to the King's closet : where such 
variety of pictures, and other things of value 
and rarity, that I was properly confounded, 
and enjoyed no pleasure in the sight of them ; 
which is the only time in my life that ever I 
was so at a loss for pleasure, in the greatest 
plenty of objects to give it me. 

that purpose, produced in the market for sale, at such times 
and prices, and in such quantities, as the Lord Mayor or Com- 
mon Council should direct. (See the report of a case in the 
Court of Chancery, Attorney-General v. Haberdashers' Com- 
pany, Mylne and Keen's Reports.) 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 115 

26th. (Lord's Day.) At my Lord Sand- 
wich's ; where his little daughter, my Lady 
Katherine, was brought, who is lately come 
from my father's at Brampton, to have her 
cheeke looked after, which is and hath long 
been sore. But my Lord will rather have it be 
as it is, with a scar in her face, than endanger 
it being worse by tampering. I went home, 
and with Creed called at several churches, 
which, God knows, are supplied with very young 
men, and the churches very empty ; and at our 
own church looked in, and there heard one 
preach whom Sir William Penn brought, which 
he desired us yesterday to hear, that had been 
his chaplain in Ireland : a very silly fellow. 
After dinner, a frolic took us, we would go this 
afternoon to the Hope ; so my wife dressed her- 
self, and, with good victuals and drink, we took 
boat presently, and the tide with us, got down, 
but it was night, and the tide spent by the time 
we got to Gravesend : so there we stopped, but 
went not on shore, only Creed, to get some cher- 
ries, and sent a letter to the Hope, where theFleet 
lies. And so, it being raiDy, and thundering 
mightily, and lightning, we returned with great 
pleasure home, about twelve o'clock — Creed 
telling pretty stories in the boat. He lay with 
me all m<rht. 



116 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

27th. To Paul's Churchyard, and there saw 
Sir Harry Spillman's book, 1 and I bespoke it 
and others. 

28th. Put on a half shirt first this summer, 
it being very hot ; and yet so ill-tempered I am 
grown, that I am afraid I shall catch cold, 
while all the world is afraid to melt away. To 
the Mitre, and there comes Dr. Burnett to us : 
and there I began to have his advice about my 
disease, and then invited him to my house ; and 
I am resolved to put myself into his hands. 

29th. Mr. Shepley tells me how my brave 
dog I did give him, going out betimes one morn- 
ing, to Huntingdon, was set upon by five other 
dogs, and worried to pieces, of which I am a lit- 
tle, and he the most sorry I ever saw man for 
such a thing. To Westminster, to see Dean 
Honiwood, whom I had not visited a great while. 
He is a good-natured, but a very weak man, yet 
a Dean, and a man in great esteem. My Lady 2 
and I sat two hours, alone, talking of the condi- 
tion of her family's being greatly in debt, and 
many children now coming up to provide for. 
I did give her my sense very plainly of it, which 
she took well, and carried farther than myself, 

i Glossarium Archaiologicum. 
2 Sandwich. 



MB. SECRETARY PEPYS. 117 

to the bemoaning their condition, and remem- 
bering how finely things were ordered about six 
years ago, when I lived there, and my Lord at 
sea every year. 

30th. By water to Woolwich, and walked 
back from Woolwich to Greenwich all alone ; 
saw a man that had a cudgel in his hand, and, 
though he told me he labored in the King's 
yard, and many other good arguments that he 
is an honest man, yet, God forgive me ! I did 
doubt he might knock me on the head behind 
with his club. But I got safe home. Great 
doubts yet whether the Dutch war go on or no. 
The fleet ready in the Hope, of twelve sail. 
The King and Queens go on board, they say, on 
Saturday next. Young children of my Lord 
Sandwich gone with their maids from my 
mother's, which troubles me — it being, I hear, 
from Mr. Shepley, with great discontent, say- 
ing that, though they buy good meate, yet can 
never have it before it stinks, which I am 
ashamed of. 

July 1st. Comes Dr. Burnett, who did write 
me down some direction what to do, but not 
with the satisfaction I expected. I did give 
him a piece, with good hopes, however, that his 
advice will be of use to me. Upon the 'Change* 



118 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

this day, I saw how uncertain the temper of the 
people is, that from our discharging about 200 
that lay idle, having nothing to do, upon some 
of our ships, which were ordered to be fitted for 
service, and their works are now done, the town 
do talk that the King discharges all his men — 
200 yesterday, and 800 to-day — and that now 
he hath got 100,000£. in his hand, he values not 
a Dutch war. But I undeceived a great many, 
telling them how it is. 

3d. (Lord's Day.) At noon, to dinner, 
where the remains of yesterday's venison, and 
a couple of brave green geese, which we are 
fain to eat alone, because they will not keep, 
which troubled us. Thundering and lightning 
all the evening, and this year have had the most 
thunder and lightning, they say, of any in man's 
memory, and so it is, it seems, in France and 
everywhere. 

4dh. This day the King and the Queen went 
to visit my Lord Sandwich and the fleet, going 
forth in the Hope. 1 

6th. Up very betimes, and my wife also, and 

1 Their Majesties were treated at Tilbury Hope by the Earl 
of Sandwich, returning- the same day, abundantly satisfied, 
both with the dutiful respects of that honorable person, and 
with the excellent condition of all matters committed to his 
charge. — The Kewes, 7th July, 1664. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 119 

got us ready ; and about eight o'clock, having 
got some bottles of wine and beer, and neat's 
tongues, we went to our barge at the Tower, 
where Mr. Pierce and his wife, and a kins- 
woman and his sister, and Mrs. Clerke and her 
sister, and cousin, were to expect us ; and so set 
out for the Hope, all the way down playing at 
cards, and other sports, spending our time pretty 
merry. Come to the Hope about one, and there 
showed them all the ships, and had a collation 
of anchovies, gammon, &c, and after an hour's 
stay or more, embarked again for home ; and 
so to cards, and other sports, till we come to 
Greenwich, and there Mrs. Clerke, and my wife 
and I, on shore, to an alehouse, and so to the 
barge again, having shown them the King's 
pleasure-boat : and so home to the Bridge, 
bringing night home with us : so to the Tower 
wharf, and home, being very well pleased to- 
day with the company, especially Mrs. Pierce, 
who continues her complexion as well as ever, 
and hath at this day, I think, the best complex- 
ion that ever I saw on any woman, young or 
old, or child either, all days of my life. Also, 
Mrs. Gierke's kinswoman sings very prettily, 
but is very confident in it — Mrs. Clerke herself 
witty, but spoils all in being so conceited, and 



120 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

making so great a flutter with a few fine clothes, 
and some bad tawdry things worn with them. 
The reason of Dr. Clerke's not being here was, 
the King being sick last night, and let blood, 
and so he durst not come away to-day. 

1th. To White Hall, and there found the 
Duke and twenty more reading their commis- 
sion (of which I am, and was also sent to, 
to come) for the Royal Fishery, which is very 
large, and a very serious charter it is ; but the 
Company generally so ill fitted for so serious a 
work, that I do much fear it will come to little. 
Home, calling for my new books, viz., Sir H. 
Spillman's ; Whole Glossary,' Scapula's 'Lexi- 
con,' and Shakespeare's plays, which I have got 
money out of my stationer's bills to pay for. 
The King is pretty well, to-day. 

8th. To the binder's, and directed the doing 
of my Chaucer, though they were not full neat 
enough for me, but pretty well it is ; and thence 
to the clasp-maker's to have it clasped and 
bossed. 

9th. To a Committee for Fishing ; but the 
first thing was swearing to be true to the Com- 
pany ; and we were all sworn, but a great dis- 
pute we had, which, methought, is very ominous 
to the Company — some, that w r e should swear 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 121 

to be true to the best of our power ; and others, 
to the best of our understanding — and carried 
in the last, though in that we are the least able 
to serve the Company, because we would not be 
obliged to attend the business when we can, but 
when we list. 

10th. (Lord's Day.) Up, and by water, 
towards noon, to Somersett House, and walked 
to my Lord Sandwich's, and there dined with my 
lady and the children. After dinner, took our 
leaves, and my wife hers, in order to her going 
to the country to-morrow. My Lady showed 
us my Lady Castlemaine's 1 picture, finely done, 
given my Lord ; and a most beautiful picture it 
is. Thence with my Lady Jemimah, and Mr. 
Sidney [Montagu], to St. Gyles's church, and 
there heard a long, poor sermon. Thence set 
them down, and in their coach to Kate Joyce's 
christening, where much company and good ser- 
vice of sweetmeats ; and, after an hour's stay, 
left them, and in my Lord's coach — his noble, 
rich coach — home. 

11th. Betimes up this morning, and, getting 
ready, we by coach to Holborne, where, at nine 
o'clock, they set out, and I and my man Will on 

i This fine portrait is still at Ilinchingbrooke, and in very 
good preservation. 



122 MS. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

horseback by my wife to Barnett ; a very pleas- 
ant day ; and there dined with her company, 
which was very good — a pretty gentlewoman 
with her, that goes but to Huntingdon, and a 
neighbor to us in town. Here we staid two 
hours, and then parted for all together, and my 
poor wife I shall soon want, I am sure. Thence 
I and Will to see the Wells, 1 half a mile off, and 
there I drunk three glasses, and walked, and 
come back and drunk two more : and so we 
rode home, round by Kingsland, Hackney, and 
Mile End, till we were quite weary ; and, not 
being very well, I betimes to bed. About eleven 
o'clock, knowing what money I have in the 
house, and hearing a noise, I begun to sweat 
worse and worse, till J melted almost to water. 
I rung, and could not in half an hour make 
either of the wenches hear me ; and this made 
me fear the more, lest they might be gagged ; 
and then I begun to think that there was some 
design in a stone being flung at the window over 
our stairs this evening, by which the thiefes 
meant to try what looking there would be after 
them, and know our company. These thoughts 
and fears I had, and do hence apprehend the 
fears of all rich men that are covetous, and have 

i The mineral spring at East Barnett. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 123 

much money by them. At last, Jane rose, and 
then I understand it was only the dog wants a 
lodging, and so made a noise. 

12th. Called up by my Lord Peterborough's 
gentleman, about getting his Lord's money to- 
day of Mr. Povy, wherein I took such order, 
that it was paid, and I had my 50/. brought me, 
which comforts my heart. Dined alone ; sad 
for want of company, and not being very well, 
and know not how to eat alone. 

Aug. 26th. Mr. Pen, 1 Sir William's son, is 
come back from France, and come to visit my 
wife. A most modish person grown, she says 
a fine gentleman. 

Sept. 21st. Home to bed : having got a 
strange cold in my head, by flinging off my hat 2 
at dinner, and sitting with the wind at my back. 

Nov. 21st. This day for certain news is 
come that Teddeman hath brought in eighteen 
or twenty Dutchmen, merchants, their Bour- 
deaux fleet, and two men-of-war to Portsmouth. 
And I had letters this afternoon, that three are 
brought into the Dowries and Dover, so that the 
war is begun : God give a good end to it. 

i William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania. 

2 In Lord Clarendon's Essay on the decay of respect paid to 
age, he says, that in his younger days he never kept his hat 
on before those older than himself, except at dinner. 



124 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

Dec. 21st. To Mrs. Turner, to Salisbury 
Court, and with her a little ; and carried her, 
the porter staying for me, our eagle, which she 
desired the other clay, and we were glad to be 
rid of her. They are much pleased with her. 
My Lord Sandwich this day writes me word 
that he hath seen, at Portsmouth, the Comet, 
and says it is the most extraordinary thing he 
ever saw. 

22d. Met with a copy of verses, mightily 
commended by some gentlemen there, of my 
Lord Mordaunt's, in excuse of his going to sea 
this late expedition, with the Duke of York. 
But, Lord ! they are sorry things ; only a Lord 
made them. Thence, to the 'Change ; and 
there, among the merchants, I hear fully the 
news of our being beaten to dirt at Guinny, by 
De Ruyter, with his fleet. The particulars, as 
much as by Sir G. Carteret afterwards I heard, 
I have said in a letter to my Lord Sandwich 
this day at Portsmouth ; it being most wholly 
to the utter ruin of our Royal Company, and 
reproach and shame to the whole nation, as 
well as justification to them, in their doing- 
wrong to no man as to his private property, 
only taking whatever is found to belong to the 
Company, and nothing else. Dined at the Dol- 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 125 

phin — Sir G. Carteret, Sir J. Mirmes, Sir W. 
Batten, and I, with Sir William Borcman, and 
Sir Theophilus Biddulph l and others, Commis- 
sioners of the Sewers, about our place below to 
lay masts in.. But coming a little too soon, I out 
again, and took boat down to Redriffe ; and just 
in time within two minutes, and saw the new 
vessel of Sir William Petty's launched, the King 
and Duke being there. It swims and looks finely, 
and I believe will do well. Coming away back 
immediately to dinner, where a great deal of 
good discourse, and Sir G. Carteret's discourse 
of this Guinny business, with great displeasure 
at the loss of our honor there, and do now con- 
fess that the trade brought all these troubles 
upon us between the Dutch and us. 

24:th. Having sat up all night till past two 
o'clock this morning, our porter, being ap- 
pointed, comes and tells us that the bellman tells 
him that the Star is seen upon Tower Hill; 
so I, that had been all night setting in order all 
my old papers in my chamber, did leave off all, 
and my boy and I to Tower Hill, it being a most 
fine, bright, moonshine night, and a great frost, 

i Sir Theophilus Biddulph, of Westcombe, Kent, who had 
been previously knighted, was made a Baronet, 2d Novem- 
ber, 1()04. He was then serving in Parliament for Lichfield. 



126 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

but no Comet to be seen. At noon to the 
'Change, to the Coffee-house ; and there heard 
Sir Richard Ford tell the whole story of our 
defeat at Guinny, wherein our men are guilty 
of the most horrid cowardice and perfidious- 
ness, as he says and tells it. that ever English- 
men were. Captain Raynolds, that was the 
only commander of any of the King's ships 
there, was shot at by De Ruyter, with a bloody 
flag flying. He, instead of opposing, which, in- 
deed, had been to no purpose, but only to main- 
tain honor, did poorly go on board himself, to 
ask what De Ruyter would have, and so yield 
whatever Ruyter would desire. The King and 
Duke are highly vexed at it, it seems, and the 
business deserves it. I saw the Comet, 1 which 
now, whether worn away or no, I know not, 
appears not with a tail, but only is larger and 
duller than any other star, and is come to rise 
betimes, and to make a great arch, and is gone 
quite to a new place in the heavens than it was 
before ; but I hope, in a clearer night, something 
more will be seen. 

2bth.. (Lord's Day.) To Mr. Rawlinson's 

i It is one of the twenty-four comets of which the observa- 
tions have been collected in HaUey's Astronomic Cometicse 

Synopsis. 



MIL SECRETARY PEPYS. 127 

church, 1 where I heard a good sermon of one 
that I remember was at Paul's with me — his 
name Maggett ; and very great store of fine 
women there is in this church, more than I 
know anywhere else about us. 

26th. To Sir W. Batten s, where Mr. Cov- 
entry and all our families here, and Sir R. Ford 
and his, and a great feast, and good discourse 
and merry, and so home to bed, where my wife 
and people innocently at cards, very merry. I 
to bed, leaving them to tlieir sport, and blind- 
man's buff. 

27th. Up at seven, and to Deptford and 
Woolwich in a galley ; the Duke calling me out 
of a barge in which the King was with him, to 
know whither I was going. I told him to Wool- 
wich, but was troubled afterwards I should say 
no further, being in a galley, lest he should think 
me too profuse in my journeys. The Comet ap- 
peared to-night, but duskishly. I went to bed, 
leaving my wife, and all her folks, and Will 
also, to come to make Christmas gambols to- 
night. 

. My wife to bed at eight o'clock in the 
morning, which vexed me a little, but I believe 
there was no hurt in it at all, but only mirth. 

t St. Dionis Backchurch. 



128 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

Visited my Lady Sandwich, and was there, with 
her and the young ladies, playing at cards till 
night. Then home to bed, leaving my wife and 
people up to more sports, but without any great 
satisfaction to myself. 

30th. To several places to pay away money, 
to clear myself in all the world, and, among 
others, paid my bookseller 61. for books I had 
from him this day, and the silversmith 221. 18s. 
for spoons, forks, and sugar-box. 

31st. To my accounts of the whole year till 
past twelve at night, it being bitter cold, but yet 
I was well satisfied with my work ; and, above 
all, to find myself, by the great blessing of God, 
worth 1349Z., by which, as I have spent very 
largely, so I have laid up above 5001. this year 
above what I was worth this day twelve month. 
The Lord make me for ever thankful to his holy 
name for it ! Soon as ever the clock struck one, 
I kissed my wife in the kitchen by the fireside, 
wishing her a merry new year. So ends the 
old year, I bless God, with great joy to me, not 
only from my having made so good a year of 
profit, as having spent 420Z. and laid up 5401. 
and upwards : but I bless God I never have 
been in so good plight as to my health in so very 
cold weather as this is, nor indeed in any hot 



MB. SEC RE TAR Y PEPYS. 129 

weather, these ten years, as I am at this day, 
and have been these four or five months. But 
I am at a great loss to know whether it be my 
hare's foot, 1 or taking every morning of a pill 
of turpentine, or my having left off the wearing 
of a gown. My family is my wife, in good 
health, and happy with her ; her woman Mer- 
cer, a pretty, modest, quiet maid ; her chamber- 
maid, Besse, her cook-maid Jane, the little girl 
Susan, and my boy, ^vhich I have had about 
half a year, Tom Edwards, which I took from 
the King's Chapel ; and as pretty and loving 
quiet a family I have as any man in England. 
My credit in the world and my office grows 
daily, and I am in good esteem with everybody, 
I think. My troubles of my uncle's estate 
pretty well over ; but it comes to be of little 
profit to us, my father being much supported by 
my purse. But great vexations remain upon 
my father and me from my brother Tom's death 
and ill condition, both to our disgrace and dis- 
content, though no great reason for either. 
Public matters are all in a hurry about a Dutch 
war. Our preparations great ; our provocations 
against them great ; and, after all our presump- 
tion, we are now afraid as much of them as we 

l As a charm against the colic. 
9 



130 MR. SECRETARY PEPTS. 

lately contemned them. Everything else in 
the State quiet, blessed be God ! My Lord 
Sandwich at sea with the fleet, at Portsmouth ; 
sending some about to cruise for taking of 
ships, which we have done to a great number. 
This Christmas I judged it fit to look over all 
my papers and books, and to tear all that I 
found either boyish or not to be worth keeping, 
or fit to be seen, if it should please God to take 
me away suddenly/' 

A love of lucre seems to have shared a place 
in Pepys's heart, with his fondness for dress 
and good drink. In fact, throughout the whole 
Diary, he is mainly occupied with reckoning up 
and securing his gains, — turning them into 
good gold, — and bagging and hiding them in 
holes and corners. His prosperity, indeed, is 
marvellous, and shows us how good a thing it 
was to be in office, even two centuries ago. 
There were evidently pretty pickings in the 
Admiralty ; and the conscientious and cautious 
Samuel does not appear to have been above re- 
ceiving retainers and bribes in accordance with 
the customs in vogue in those not over-scrupu- 
lous days. For instance, Pepys records, " I 
met Captain Grove, who did give me a letter 
addressed to myself from himself. I discovered 



MR. SECRETARY PEPTS. 131 

money to be in it : and took it, knowing, as 1 
found it to be, the proceed of the place I have 
got him to be, the taking up of vessels for Tan- 
gier. But I did not open it till I came home, 
not looking into it till all the money was out, 
that I might say I saw no money in the paper, 
if ever I should be questioned about it ! " 

In making up a year's balance, he says, with 
great satisfaction, that he has largely increased 
his wealth in the twelvemonth, and records an 
u abatement of outlay" for coats, bands, peri- 
wigs, &c. 

The Dutch war stimulated the Secretary to 
very great exertions, as all the naval energies 
of the nation were necessarily called into ac- 
tion, and during the plague which ensued in 
the year 1665, when London was deserted, and 
the service almost completely abandoned, the 
whole management of the navy devolved upon 
him. Pepys behaved nobly during the exist- 
ance of that terrible visitation, remaining at 
his post, regardless of the dangers which en- 
vironed him, while others fled in dismay. " The 
siekue.-s in general thickens around us, and 
particularly upon our neighborhood, " observes 
the Secretary in writing to Sir William Coven- 
try at this juncture. " You, sir, took your turn 



132 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

of the sword, I must not therefore grudge to 
take mine of the pestilence." To write a full 
history of the mysterious malady, and a de- 
scription of the fearful scenes it generated, was 
reserved for a novelist of the next generation, 
whose wonderful pen had the power of invest- 
ing with an air of reality whatever it touched. 
Pepys, writing to a friend, says, " The absence 
of the court and the emptiness of the city takes 
away all occasion of news, save only such 
melancholy stories as would rather sadden than 
find your Ladyship any divertisement in the 
hearing : I have staid in the city till above 
7400 died in one week, and of them about 
6000 of the plague, and little noise heard day 
nor night but tolling of bells : till I could walk 
Lumberstreet, and not meet twenty persons 
from one end to the other, and not fifty upon 
the Exchange : till whole families (ten and 
twelve together) have been swept away : till 
my very physician (Dr. Burnet), who under- 
took to secure me against any infection (having 
survived the month of his own being shut up), 
died himself of the plague : till the nights 
(though much lengthened) are grown too short 
to conceal the burials of those who died the 
day before, people being thereby constrained to 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 133 

borrow daylight for service : lastly till I could 
neither find meat nor drink safe, the butchers 
being everywhere visited, my brewer's house 
shut up, and my baker with his whole family 
dead of the plague." 

At this time comes news of the great victory 
gained over the Dutch fleet on the 3d of June. 
Says Pepys, "I to my Lord Treasurer's by ap- 
pointment of Sir Thomas lngrams to meet the 
Goldsmiths ; where I met with the great news 
at last newly come, brought by Bab May from 
the Duke of York, that we have totally routed 
the Dutch ; that # the Duke himself, the Prince, 
my Lord Sandwich, and Mr. Coventry are all 
well ; which did put me into such joy, that I 
forgot almost all other thoughts. With great 
joy to the Cocke-pitt, where the Duke of Albe- 
marle, like a man out of himself with content, 
new-told me ail ; and by and by comes a letter 
from Mr. Coventry's own hand to him, which 
he never opened, which was a strange thing, 
but did give it me to open and read, and 
consider what was fit for our office to do in it, 
and leave the matter with Sir W. Gierke; 
which, upon such a time and occasion, was a 
strange piece of indifference, hardly possible. 
I copied out the letter, and did also take min- 



134 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

utes out of Sir W. Clerke's other letters ; and 
the sum of the news is : — 

VICTORY OVER THE DUTCH, JUNE 8, 1665. 1 

This day they engaged : the Dutch neglecting 
greatly the opportunity of the wind they had 
of us ; by which they lost the benefit of their 
fire-ships. The Earl of Falmouth, Muskerry, 
and Mr. Richard Boyle 2 killed on board the 
Duke's ship, the Roy all Charles, with one shot : 
their blood and brains flying in the Duke's 
face ; and the head of Mr. Boyle striking down 
the Duke, as some say. Earl^of Marlborough, 
Portland, 3 Rear Admiral Sansum, 4 to Prince 
Rupert, killed, and Captain Kirby and Able- 
son. Sir John Lawson wounded on the knee : 5 



1 See Sir John Denham's Advice to a Painter concerning 
the Dutch war, in Poems on State Affairs. 

2 Second son to the Earl of Burlington. 

3 Charles Weston, third Earl of Portland. 

4 " Robert Sansum, Commander of the Resolution, being 
Rear- Admiral of the White."— Pepys's Collection of Signs 
Manual. 

5 When Opdam's ship blew up, a shot from it mortally 
wounded Sir John Lawson, which is thus alluded to in the 
Poems on State Affairs : — 

" destiny allowed 



Him his revenge, to make his death more proud. 

A fatal bullet from his side did range, 

And battered Lawson; oh, too dear exchange ! 



MB. SECRETARY PEPYS. 135 

hath had some bones taken out, and is likely to 
be well again. Upon receiving the hurt, he 
sent to the Duke for another to command the 
Eoyall Oake. The Duke sent Jordan * out of 
the St. George, who did brave things to her. 
Captain Jeremiah Smith, of the Mary, was 
second to the Duke, and stepped between him 
and Captain Seatou, of the Urania, 76 guns 
and 400 men, who had sworn to board the 
Duke ; killed him 200 men, and took the ship ; 
himself losing 99 men, and never an officer 
saved, but himself and lieutenant. His master 
indeed is saved, with his leg cut off. Admiral 
Opdam blown up, Trump killed, and said by 

He led our fleet that day too short a space, 
But lost his knee : since died, in glorious race : 
Lawson, whose valor beyond Fate did go, 
And still fights Opdam in the lake below." 

In the same poem, Lord Falmouth's death is thus noticed : — 

11 Falmouth was there, I know not what to act ; 
Some say 'twas to grow Duke, too, by contract. 
An untaught bullet,- in his wanton scope, 
Dashes him all to pieces, and his Hope. 
Such was his rise, such was his fall, unpraiscd ; 
A chance-shot sooner took him than chance raised : 
His shattered head the fearless Duke distains, 
And gave the last first proof that he had brains." 

i Afterwards Sir Joseph Jordan, Commander of the Royal 
Sovereign, and Yice-Admiral of the Red, 1672. He was 
knighted on the 1st July, 1665. 



136 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

Holmes ; all the rest of their admirals, as they 
say, but Everson, whom they dare not trust for 
his affection to the Prince of Orange, are killed : 
we have taken and sunk, as is believed, about 
twenty-four of their best ships ; killed and taken 
near 8 or 10,000 men, and lost, we think, not 
above 700. A greater victory never known in 
the world. They are all fled ; some 43 got 
into the Texell, and others elsewhere, and we 
in pursuit of the rest. Thence, with my heart 
full of joy, home ; then to my Lady Pen's, 
where they are all joyed, and not a little 
puffed up at the good success of their father ; 
and good service indeed is said to have been 
done by him. Had a great bonfire at the gate ; 
and I, with my Lady Pen's people, and others, 
to Mrs. Turner's great room, and there down 
into the street. I did give the boys 4s. among 
them, and mighty merry : so home to bed, with 
my heart at great rest and quiet, saving that 
the consideration of the victory is too great for 
me presently to comprehend. 

9 th. To White Hall, and in my way met 
with Mr. Moore, who eases me in one point 
wherein I was troubled ; which was, that I 
heard of nothing said or done by my Lord 
Sandwich : but he tells me that Mr. Cooling, 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 137 

my Lord Chamberlain's secretary, did hear the 
King say that my Lord Sandwich had done 
nobly and worthily. 1 The King, it seems, is 
much troubled at the fall of my Lord Falmouth ; 
but I do not meet with any man else that so 
much as wishes him alive again, the world 
conceiving him a man of too much pleasure to 
do the King any good, or offer any good office 
to him. Bat I hear, of all hands, he is con- 
fessed to be a man of great honor, that did 
show it in this his going with the Duke, the 
most that ever any man did. Home, where my 
people busy to make ready a supper against 
night for some guests, in lieu of my stone-feasts. 
With my tailor to buy a silk suit, which though 
I had one lately, yet I do, for joy of the good 
news we have lately had of our victory over 
the Dutch, which makes me willing to spare 
myself something extraordinary in clothes ; 
and, after long resolution of having nothing but 
black, I did buy a colored silk ferrandin. 

10th. In the evening home to supper; and 
there, to my great trouble, hear that the plague 
is come into the City, though it hath, these 
three or four weeks since its beginning, been 

1 See Charles II. 'k letter of thanks- to Lord Sandwich, in 

U iters. 



138 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

wholly out of the City ; but where should it 
begin but in my good friend and neighbor's, 
Dr. Burnett, in Fenchurch Street ; which, in 
both points, troubles me mightily. 

Wth. (Lord's Day.) Up, and expected long 
a new suit ; but, coming not, dressed myself in 
my new black silk camelott suit; and, when 
fully ready, comes my new one of colored fer- 
randin, which my wife puts me out of love 
with, which vexes me. At noon, by invitation, 
comes my two cousin Joyces and their wives — 
my aunt James and he-cousin Harman — his 
wife being ill. Had a good dinner for them, 
and as merry as I could be in such company. 
They being gone, I out of doors a little, to 
show, forsooth, my new suit. I saw poor Dr. 
Burnett's door shut ; but he hath, I hear, 
gained great good-will among his neighbors : 
for he discovered it himself first, and caused 
himself to be shut up of his own accord ; which 
was very handsome. 

\2th. Up, and in my yesterday's new suit to 
the Duke of Albemarle, and thence returned ; 
and, with my tailor, bought some good lace for 
my sleeve bands in Pater Noster Row. The 
Duke of York is sent for last night, and ex- 
pected to be here* to-morrow." 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 139 

In his Diary the Secretary has, of course, 
constant allusions to the terrible scourge which 
come in strangely, like the tones of a death- 
knell, among statements of every kind of gayety 
unci dissipation ; for the plague did not do away 
with frivolity, nor with marrying and giving in 
marriage. We find him conversing with a 
friend, when they come close to a victim of the 
pestilence, who is being carried to " the silent 
house ; " and then follows this entry : fc Lord ! to 
see what custom is, that I am come to think 
nothing of it." Again : " To my office a little, 
and then to the Duke of Albemarle's about 
some business. The streets empty all the way, 
now, even in London, which is a sad sight. 
And to Westminster Hall, where talking, hear- 
ing very sad stories from Mrs. Mumford : 
among others, of Mr. Mitchell's son's family. 
And poor Will, that used to sell us ale at the 
Hall-door, his wife and three children died, all, 
I think, in a day. So home through the city 
again, wishing I may have no ill in going : but 
I will go, I think, no more thither." During 
the month of July, Pepys has a great deal to 
say about the wooing of his patron's daughter, 
Miss Jemimah Montagu, to whom we are first 
introduced in his Diary October 20, 1660. " All 



140 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

other things well," says Samuel ; " especially a 
new interest I am making by a match in hand 
between the eldest son of Sir G. Carteret and 
Lady Jemimah Montagu." Our readers will 
be amused with the story of the courtship, ■ 
which was in accordance with the old saw, 
" Happy is the wooing that is not long a doing." 
u July 14th. I by water to Sir G. Carteret's, 
and there find my Lady Sandwich buying things 
for my Lady Jem.'s wedding : and my Lady 
Jem. is, beyond expectation, come to Dagen- 
hams, 1 where Mr. Carteret is to go to visit 
her to-morrow ; and my proposal of waiting 
on him, he being to go alone to all persons 
strangers to him, was well accepted, and so I 
go with him. But, Lord ! to see how kind my 
Lady Carteret is to her ! Sends her most rich 

1 Dagenhams, near Romford, the seat of Lady Wright, 
widow of Sir Henry Wright, and sister of Lady Sandwich. 
This estate was devised by Anne, daughter of Sir Henry and 
Lady Wright, widow tirst of Sir Robert Pye, of Berkshire, 
and afterwards of William Kider, Esq., only surviving child 
of Sir Henry Wright, to her first cousin, Edward Carteret, 
Postmaster-General, third son of Sir Philip Carteret and Lady 
Jemimah Montagu, whose daughters, in 1749, sold it to Henry 
Muilman : in 1772 it was again disposed of to Mr. Neave, 
grandfather of the present proprietor (Sir Richard Digby 
Neave, Bart.), who pulled down the old house built by Sir 
Henry Wright, and erected the present mansion on a different 
site. — See Lysons's Environs. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 141 

jewels, and provides bedding and things of all 
sorts most richly for her, which makes my Lady 
and me out of our wits almost to see the kind- 
ness she treats us all with, as if they would buy 
the young lady. 

Ibtli. Mr. Carteret and I to the ferry-place 
at Greenwich, and there staid an hour crossing 
the water to and again to get our coach and 
horses over ; and by and by set out, and so 
toward Dagenhams. But, Lord ! what silly dis- 
course we had as to love-matters, he being the 
most awkward man ever I met with in my life 
as to that business. Thither we come, and by 
that time it began to be dark, and were kindly 
received by Lady Wright and my Lord Crewe. 
And to discourse they went, my Lord discours- 
ing with him, asking of him questions of travel, 
which he answered well enough in a few words ; 
but nothing to the lady from him at all. To 
supper, and after supper to talk again, he yet 
taking no notice of the lady. My Lord would 
have had me have consented to leaving the 
young people together to-night, to begin their 
amour?, his staying being but to be little. But 
I advised against it, lest the lady might be too 
much surprised. So they led him up to his 
chamber, where I staid a little, to know how lie 



142 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

liked the lady, which he told me he did might- 
ily ; but, Lord ! in the dullest insipid manner 
that ever lover did. So I bid him good night, 
and down to prayers with my Lord Crewe's 
family ; and, after prayers, my Lord, and Lady 
Wright, and I, to consult what to do ; and it 
was agreed, at last, to have them go to church 
together, as the family used to do, though his 
lameness was a great objection against it. But, 
at last, my Lady Jem. sent me word by my Lady 
Wright, that it would be better to do just as 
they used to do before his coming ; and there- 
fore she desired to go to church, which was 
yielded to them. 

16th. (Lord's Day.) I up, having lain with 
Mr. Moore in tne chaplain's chamber* And, 
having trimmed myself, down to Mr. Carteret ; 
and we walked in the gallery an hour or two, 
it being a most noble and pretty house that ever, 
for the bigness, I saw. Here I taught him what 
to do : to take the lady always by the hand to 
lead her, and telling him that I would find 
opportunity to leave them together, he should 
make these and these compliments, and also 
take a time to do the like to Lord Crewe and 
Lady Wright. After I had instructed him, 
which he thanked me for, owning that he needed 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 143 

my teaching him, my Lord Crewe come down 
and family, the young lady among the rest ; 
and so by coaches to church four miles off ; 
where a pretty good sermon, and a declaration 
of penitence of a man that had undergone the 
church's censure for his wicked life. Thence 
back again by coach, Mr. Carteret having not 
had the confidence to take his lady once by the 
hand, coming or going, which I told him of 
when we come home, and he will hereafter do 
it. So to dinner. My Lord excellent dis- 
course. Then to walk in the gallery, and to 
sit down. By and by my Lady Wright and I 
go out, and then my Lord Crewe, he not by 
design, and lastly my Lady Crewe come out, 
and left the young people together. ^And a 
little pretty daughter of my Lady Wright's most 
innocently come out afterwards, and shut the 
door to, as if she had done it, poor child, by 
inspiration : which made us without have good 
sport to laugh at. They together an hour, and 
by and by church-time, whither he led her into 
the coach and into the church, where several 
handsome ladies. But it was most extraordi- 
nary hot that ever I knew it. So home again, 
and to walk in the gardens, where we left the 
young couple a second time ; and my Lady 



144 MR. SECRET AR Y PEP YS. 

Wright and I to walk together, who tells me 
that some new clothes must of necessity be made 
for Lady Jemimah, which and other things I 
took care of. Anon to supper, and excellent 
discourse and dispute between my Lord Crewe 
and the chaplain, who is a good scholar, but a 
nonconformist. Here this evening I spoke with 
Mrs. Carter, my old acquaintance, that hath 
lived with my Lady these twelve or thirteen 
years, the sum of all whose discourse and others 
for her is, that I would get her a good hushand ; 
which I have promised, but know not when I 
shall perform. After Mr. Carteret was carried 
to his chamber, we to prayers, and then to bed. 
17th. Up all of us, and to billiards ; my Lady 
Wright, Mr. Carteret, myself, and everybody. 
By and by, the young couple left together. 
Anon to dinner ; and after dinner Mr. Carteret 
took my advice about giving to the servants 101. 
among them, which he did, by leaving it to the 
chief man-servant, Mr. Medows, to do for him. 
Before we went, I took my Lady Jem. apart, 
and would know how she liked this gentleman, 
and whether she was under any difficulty con- 
cerning him. She blushed, and hid her face 
awhile ; but at last I forced her to tell me. She 
answered, that she could readily obey what her 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 145 

father and mother had done ; which was all 
she could say, or I expect. But, Lord ! to see 
among other things, how all these great people 
here are afraid of London, being doubtful of 
anything that comes from thence, or that hath 
lately been there, that I was forced to say that 
I lived wholly at Woolwich. So anon took 
leave, and for London. In our way, Mr. Car- 
teret did give me mighty thanks for my care and 
pains for him, and is mightily pleased, though 
the truth is, my Lady Jem. hath carried herself 
with mighty discretion and gravity, not being 
forward at all in any degree, but mighty serious 
in her answers to him, as by what he says 
and I observed, I collect. To Deptford, where 
mighty welcome, and brought the good news of 
all being pleased. Mighty mirth of my giving 
them an account of all ; but the young man 
could not be got to say one word before me or 
my Lady Sandwich of his adventures ; but, by 
what he afterwards related to his father and 
mother and sisters, he gives an account that 
pleases them mightily. Here Sir G. Carteret 
would have me lie all night, which I did most 
nobly, better than ever I did in my life ; Sir 
G. Carteret being mighty kind to me, leading 
me to my chamber ; and all their care now is, 
10 



146 MR. SECRETARY PEPTS. 

to have the business ended ; and they have rea- 
son, because the sickness puts all out of order, 
and they cannot safely stay where they are." 

The day of the marriage — the 31st of 
July — soon comes round. The doughty Dia- 
rist is in his glory, u being," he says, " in my 
new colored silk vest and coat trimmed with 
gold buttons, and gold broad lace round my 
hands, very rich and fine." But we must give 
Pepys's own complete narrative of the proceed- 
ings on this happy occasion. 

" Up, and very betimes by six o'clock, at 
Deptford, and there find Sir Gr. Carteret, and my 
Lady ready to go : I being in my new-colored 
silk suit, and coat trimmed with gold buttons, 
and gold broad lace round my hands, very rich 
and fine. By water to the Ferry, where, when 
we come, no coach there ; and tide of ebb so 
far spent as the horse-boat could not get off on 
the other side of the river to bring away the 
coach. So we were fain to stay there in the 
unlucky Isle of Doggs, in a chilly place, the morn- 
ing cool, and wind fresh, above two if not three 
hours, to our great discontent. Yet, being upon 
a pleasant errand, and seeing that it could not 
be helped, we did bear it very patiently ; and it 
was worth my observing to see how, upon these 



MB. SECBETABY PEPYS. 147 

two scores, Sir G. Carteret, the most passionate 
man in the world, and that was in greatest haste 
to be gone, did bear with it, and very pleasant 
all the while, at least, not troubled so much as 
to fret and storm at it. Anon the coach comes : 
in the mean time, there coming a News thither 
with his horse to go over, and told us he did 
come from Islington this morning ; and that 
Proctor, 1 the vintner, of the Miter, in Wood 
Street, and his son, are dead this morning there, 
of the plague : he having laid out abundance of 
money there, and was the greatest vintner for 
some time in London for great entertainments. 
We, fearing the canonical hour would be past 
before we got thither, did, with a great deal of 
unwillingness, send away the license and wed- 
ding-ring. So that when we come, though we 
drove hard with six horses, yet we found them 
gone from home ; and, going towards the church, 
met them coming from church, which troubled 
us. But, however, that trouble was soon over ; 
hearing it was well done : they being both in 
their old clothes ; my Lord Crewe giving her, 
there being three coachfuls of them. The 

i 1666, Aug. 1. Mr. Wm. Proctor, vintner, at ye Mitre, in 
Wood Street, with his young son, died at Islington (insol- 
vent). Expeste. — Smith's Obituary. 



148 MR. SECRETARY PEPTS. 

young lady, mighty sad, which troubled me ; 
but yet I think is was only her gravity in a little 
greater degree than usual. All saluted her, but 
I did not, till my Lady Sandwich did ask mo 
whether I saluted her or no. So to dinner, and 
very merry we were ; but in such a sober way 
as never almost anything was in so great fami- 
lies : but it was much better. After dinner, 
company divided, some to cards, others to talk. 
My Lady Sandwich and I up to settle accounts, 
and pay her some money. And mighty kind 
she is to me, and would fain have had me gone 
down for company with her to Hinchingbroke ; 
but for my life I cannot. At night to supper, 
and so to talk ; and which, methought, was the 
most extraordinary thing, all of us to prayers as 
usual, and the young bride and bridegroom too : 
and so, after prayers, soberly to bed ; only I 
got into the bridegroom's chamber while he un- 
dressed himself, and there was very merry, till 
he was called to the bride's chamber, and into 
bed they went. I kissed the bride in bed, and 
so the curtains drawn with the greatest gravity 
that could be, and so good night. But the 
modesty and gravity of this business was so 
decent, that it was to me indeed ten times more 
delightful than if it had been twenty times more 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 149 

merry and jovial. Whereas, I feared we must 
have sat up all night, we did here all get good 
beds, and I lay in the same I did before, with 
Mr. Brisbane!, who is a good scholar and sober 
man ; and we lay in bed, getting him to give 
me an account of Rome, which is the most de- 
lightful talk a man can have of any traveller : 
and so to sleep. Thus, I ended this month with 
the greatest joy that ever I did any in my life, 
because I have spent the greatest part of it with 
abundance of joy, and honor, and pleasant 
journeys, and brave entertainments, and with- 
out cost of money ; and at last live to see the 
business ended with great couteut on all sides. " 

During the months of August and September, 
the pestilence continued to make the most fear- 
ful ravages in London. The Diary records : — 

" Aug. 10th. My she-cousin Porter, the turn- 
er's wife, to tell me that her husband was car- 
ried to the Tower, for buying of some of the 
King's powder, and would have my help, but I 
could give her none, not daring to appear in the 
business. By and by to the office, where we 
sat all the morning ; in great trouble to see the 
Bill this week rise so high, to above 4000 in all, 
and of them above 3000 of the plague. Home, to 
draw over anew my will, which I had bound 



150 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

myself by oath to despatch by to-morrow night ; 
the town growing so unhealthy, that a man 
cannot depend upon living two days. 

11th. To the Exchequer, about striking new 
tallies, and I find the Exchequer, by proclama- 
tion, removing to Nonsuch. 1 Setting my house, 
and all things, in the best order I can, lest it 
should please God to take me away, or force 
me to leave my house. 

12th, Sent for by Sir G. Carteret, to meet 
him and my Lord Hinchingbroke at Deptford, 
but my Lord did not come thither, he having 
crossed the river at Gravesend to Dagenhams, 
whither I dare not follow him, they being afraid 
of me ; but Sir G. Carteret says he is a most 
sweet youth in every circumstance. Sir G. 
Carteret being in haste of going to the Duke 
of Albemarle and the Archbishop, he was pet- 
tish. The people die so, that now it seems they 
are fain to carry the dead to be buried by day* 
light, the nights not sufficing to do it in. And 
my Lord Mayor commands people to be within 
at nine at night all, as they say, that the sick 
may have liberty to go abroad for air. There 
is one also dead out of one of our ships at 
Deptford, which troubles us mightily — the 

i Nonsuch House, near Epsom. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 151 

Providence, fire-ship, which was just fitted to 
go to sea ; but they tell me, to-day, no more 
sick on board. And this day W. Bodham 
tells me that one is dead at Woolwich, not far 
from the Ropeyard. I am told too, that a wife 
of one of the grooms at Court is dead at Salis- 
bury ; so that the King and Queen are speedily 
to be all gone to Wilton. 1 So God preserve us ! 

12>th. (Lord's day.) It being very wet all 
day, clearing all matters, and giving instruc- 
tions in writing to my executors, thereby per- 
fecting the whole business of my will, to my 
very great joy ; so that I shall be in much bet- 
ter state of soul, I hope, if it should please the 
Lord to call me away this sickly time. I find 
myself worth, besides Brampton estates, the 
sum of 2164£., for which the Lord be praised ! 

14dh. To Sir G. Carteret ; and, among other 
things, he told me, that he was not for the fan- 
faroone, 2 to make a show with a great title, as 
he might have had long since, but the main 
thing, to get an estate ; and another thing, 
speaking of minding of business — ' By G — d,' 

1 Near Salisbury, then the seat of Philip, fifth Earl of 
Pembroke, who married Katharine, daughter of Sir Wm. Vil- 
liers, of Brookesby, cousin of the Duke of Bucking-ham. 

2 To make a great flourish or bravado.— Cot-grave. 



152 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

says he, ' I will, and have already almost 
brought it to that pass, that the King shall not 
be able to whip a cat, but I mean to be at the 
tail of it ! ' meaning, so necessary he is, and 
the King and my Lord Treasurer all do confess 
it, which, while I mind my business, is my own 
case in this office of the Navy. After dinner, 
beat Captain Cocke at billiards ; won about 8s. 
of him and my Lord Brouncker. This night I 
did present my wife with a diamond ring, 
awhile since given me by Mr. Vines's brother, 
for helping him to be a purser, valued at about 
101., the first thing of that nature I did give 
her. Great fears we have that the plague will 
be a great Bill this week. 

15th. It was dark before I could get home, 
and so land at Church-yard stairs, where, to my 
great trouble, I met a dead corpse of the plague, 
in the narrow alley, just bringing down a little 
pair of stairs. But I thank God I was not 
much disturbed at it. However, I shall beware 
of being late abroad again. 

16th. To the Exchange, where I have not 
been a great while. But, Lord ! how sad a 
sight it is to see the streets empty of people, 
and very few upon the 'Change. Jealous of 
every door that one sees shut up, lest it should 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 153 

be the plague ; and about us two shops in three, 
if not more, generally shut up. This day, I 
had the ill news from Dagenhams, that my poor 
Lord of Hinchingbroke his indisposition is 
turned to the small-pox. Poor gentleman ! that 
he should be come from France so soon to fall 
sick, and of that disease too, when he should 
be gone to see a fine lady, his mistress ! I am 
most heartily sorry for it. 

18th. To Sheernesse, where we walked up 
and down, laying out the ground * to be taken 
in for a yard to lay provisions for cleaning and 
repairing of ships, and a most proper place it 
is for the purpose. Late in the dark to Graves- 
end, where great is the plague, and I troubled 
to stay there so long for the tide. 

19th. Come letters from the King and Lord 
Arlington, for the removal of our office to 
Greenwich. I also wrote letters, and made 
myself ready to go to Sir G. Carteret, at 
Windsor ; and, having borrowed a horse of Mr. 
Blackborough, sent him to wait for me at the 
Duke of Albemarle's door : when, on a sudden, 
a letter comes to us from the Duke of Albe- 

l The yard and fortifications of Sheerness were designed 
and first " staked out " by Sir Barnard de Gomme. The origi- 
nal plan is in the British Museum. 



154 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

marie, to tell us that the fleet is all come back 
to Solebay, and are » presently to be despatched 
back again. Whereupon I presently by water 
to the Duke of Albemarle, to know what news ; 
and there I saw a letter from my Lord Sand- 
wich to the Duke of Albemarle, and also from 
Sir W. Coventry and Captain Teddiman ; how 
my Lord having commanded Teddiman, with 
twenty-two ships, of which but fifteen could get 
thither, and of those fifteen but eight or nine 
could come up to play, to go to Bergen ; * where, 
after several messages to and from the Govern- 
or of the Castle, urging that Teddiman ought 
not to come thither with more than five ships, 
and desiring time to think of it, all the while he 
suffering the Dutch ships to land their guns to 
the best advantage, Teddiman, on the second 
pretence, began to play at the Dutch ships, 
whereof ten East India-men, and in three hours' 
time, the town and castle, without any provoca- 
tion, playing on our ships, they did cut all our 
cables, so as the wind being off the land, did 
force us to go out, and rendered our fire-ships 
useless, without doing anything, but what 

i A view of this attack on Bergen, " described from the life 
in Aug., 1661, by C. H.," being a contemporary colored draw- 
ing, on vellum, showing the range of the ships engaged, is in 
the British Museum. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 155 

hurt of course our guns must have done 
them : we having lost five commanders, be- 
sides Mr. Edward Montagu 1 and Mr. Wind- 
ham. 2 Our fleet is come home, to our great 
grief, with not above five weeks' dry and six 
days' wet provisions : however, must go out 
again ; and the Duke hath ordered the Sover- 
aigne, 3 and all other ships ready, to go out to 
the fleet, and strengthen them. This news 
troubles us all, but cannot be helped. Having 
read all this news, and received commands of 
the Duke with great content, he giving me the 
words which, to my great joy, he hath several 
times said to me, that his greatest reliance is 
upon me ; and my Lord Craven also did come 

1 Mr. Edward Montagu was killed in the action at Bergen, 
and is much lamented by his friends. — Earl of Arlington's 
Letters. 

2 This Mr. Windham had entered into a formal engagement, 
with the Earl of Rochester, " not without ceremonies of re- 
ligion, that if either of them died, he should appear, and give 
the other notice of the future state, if there was any." He 
was probably one of the brothers of Sir Wm. Wyndham, 
Bart. See Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Biography. 

3 " The Sovereign of the Seas " was built at Woolwich, in 
1G37, of timber which had been stripped of its bark, while 
growing in the spring, and not felled till the second autumn 
afterward.;; and it is observed by Dr. riot {Phil. Trans, for 
1091), in his discourse on the most seasonable time for felling 
timber, written by the advice of Pepys, that after forty-seven 
years, " aU the ancient timber then remaining in her, it waB 
no easy matter to drive a nail into it." — Quarterly Review, 



156 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

out to talk with me, and told me that I am in 
mighty esteem with the Duke, for which I bless 
God. Home ; and having given my fellow-of- 
ficers an account hereof at Chatham, and wrote 
other letters, I by water to Charing-Cross, to 
the post-house, and there the people tell me they 
are shut up ; and so I went to the new post- 
house, and there got a guide and horses to 
Hounslow. So to Staines, and there, by this 
time, it was dark night, and got a guide, who 
lost his way in the forest, till, by help of the 
moon, which recompenses me for all the pains 
I ever took about studying of her motions, I 
led my guide into the way back again ; and so 
we made a man rise that kept a gate, and so he 
carried us to Cranborne, 1 where, in the dark, I 
perceive an old house new building, with a 
great deal of rubbish, and was fain to go up a 
ladder to Sir GL Carteret's chamber. And 
there, in his bed, I sat down, and told him all 
my bad news, which troubled him mightily ; 
but yet we were very merry, and made the best 
of it ; and being myself weary, did take leave ; 
and, after having spoken with Mr. Fenn 2 
in bed, I to bed in my Lady's chamber that she 

i One of the Lodges belonging to the Crown in Windsor 
Forest. 
2 Probably John Fenne of the Navy Office. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 157 

uses to lie in, where the Duchess of York, that 
now is, was born. So to sleep ; being very 
well, but weary, and the better by having car- 
ried with rne a bottle of strong water ; where- 
of, now and then, a sip did me good. 

20th. (Lord's Day.) Sir G. Carteret come 
and walked by my bedside half an hour, talk- 
ing, and telling how my Lord is unblamable in 
all this ill success, he having followed orders ; 
and that all ought to be imputed to the false- 
ness of the King of Denmark, who, he told me 
as a secret, had promised to deliver up the 
Dutch ships to us ; and we expected no less ; 
and swears it will, and will easily, be the ruin 
of him and his kingdom, if we fall out with 
him, as we must in honor do ; but that all that can 
be, must be to get the fleet out again, to inter- 
cept De Yfitt, who certainly will be coming 
home with the East India fleet, he being gone 
thither. I up, and to walk forth to see the 
place ; and I find it to be a very noble seat in a 
noble forest, with the noblest prospect towards 
Windsor, and round about over many coun- 
ties that can be desired ; but otherwise a very 
melancholy place, and little variety, save only 
trees. So took horse for Staines, and thence 
to Branford, to Mr. Povy's. Mr. Povy not 



158 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

being at home, I lost my labor — only eat and 
drank there with his lady, and told my bad 
news, and hear the plague is round about them 
there* So away to Branford ; and there, at the 
inn that goes down to the water-side, I 'light 
and paid off my post-horses, and so slipped on 
my shoes, and laid my things by, the tide not 
serving, and to church, where a dull sermon, 
and many Londoners. After church, to my 
inn, and eat and drank, and so about seven 
o'clock by water, and got, between nine and ten, 
to Queenhive, very dark ; and I could not get 
my waterman to go elsewhere, for fear of the 
plague. Thence with a lantern, in great fear 
of meeting of dead corpses, carrying to be 
buried ; but, blessed be Grod ! met none, but did 
see now and then a link, which is the mark of 
them, at a distance. 

Sept. 6th. To London, to pack up * more 
things ; and there I saw fires burning in the 
street, as it is through the whole City, by the 
Lord Mayor's order. Thence by waiter to the 
Duke of Albemarle's : all the way fires on each 
side of the Thames, and strange to see in broad 
daylight two or three burials upon the bankside, 
one at the very heels of another : doubtless, all 
of the plague ; and yet at least forty or fifty 



3LR. SECRETARY PEPYS. loi) 

people going along with every one of them. 
The Duke mighty pleasant with me ; telling me 
that he is certainly informed that the Dutch 
were not come home upon the 1st instant, and 
so he hopes our fleet may meet with them. 

7th. To the Tower, and there sent for the 
Weekly Bill, and find 8252 dead in all, and of 
them 6978 of the plague; which is a most 
dreadful number, and shows reasons to fear that 
the plague hath got that hold that it will yet 
continue among us. Thence to Branford, read- 
ing " The Villaine," a pretty good play, all the 
way. There a coach of Mr. Povy's 1 stood 
ready for me, and he at his house ready to 
come in, and so we together merrily to Swake- 
ly, 2 to Sir R. Viner's : a very pleasant place, 

1 Aug. G, 1666. Dined with Mr. Povy, and then went with 
him to see a country-house he had bought near Brentford. — 
Evelyn's Diary. 

2 Swakeley House, in the parish of Ickenham, Middlesex, 
was built in 1638, by Sir Edmund Wright, whose daughter 
marrying Sir James Harrington, one of Charles I.'s judges, 
he became possessed of it jure uxoris. Sir Robert Vyncr, Bart., 
to whom the property was sold in 1GG5, entertained Charles 
II. at Guildhall, when Lord Mayor. The house was lately 
the residence of Thomas Clarko, Esq., whose father, in 1750, 
bought the estate of Mr. Lethieullicr, to whom it had been 
alienated by the Vyncr family. — Lyaons's Environs. Sir 
Ilobert Vyner was ruined by the shutting of the Exchequer. 
The crown owed him on 1st January, 1070, no Less a sum 
than IK-TJlf. 13*. Id., to pay which, the King granted him 



160 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

bought by him of Sir James Harrington's lady. 
He took us up and down with great respect, 
and showed us all his house and grounds ; and 
it is a place not very modern in the garden nor 
house, but the most uniform in all that ever I 
saw ; and some things to excess. Pretty to see 
over the screen of the hall, put up by Sir J. 
Harrington, a long Parliament-man, the King's 
head, and my Lord of Essex 1 on one side, and 
Fairfax on the other ; and, upon the other side 
of the screen, the parson of the parish, and 
the lord of the manor and his sisters. The 
window-cases, door-cases, and chimneys of all 
the house are marble. He showed me a black 
boy that he had, that died of a consumption ; 
and, being dead, he caused him to be dried in 
an oven, and lies there entire in a box. By 
and by to dinner, where his lady 2 I find yet 



25,000?. 9s. 4d., per annum, out of the duty of Excise. These 
particulars are stated by Lord Keeper Somers, in his judg- 
ment, delivered in the Exchequer Chamber. In the Spectator 
(No. 4G2) is told the story of Sir Robert's successfully urging 
the King, at an entertainment given by him, "to return and 
take t'other bottle." Vyner afterwards erected a statue of 
the Merry Monarch in Stock's Market, and rendered the 
Crown many great services. 

1 The Parliament General. 

2 Mary, daughter of John Whitchurch, Esq., and widow 
of Sir Thomas Hyde, Bart., of Albury, Herts. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 161 

handsome, but hath been a very handsome 
woman : now is old. Hath brought him near 
100,000/., and now he lives, no man in England 
in greater plenty, and commands both King and 
Council with his credit he gives them. After 
dinner, Sir Robert led us up to his long gallery, 
very fine, above stairs, and better, or such, fur- 
niture I never did see. A most pleasant jour- 
ney we had back. Povy tells me, by a letter 
he showed me, that the King is not, nor hath 
been of late, very well, but quite out of hu- 
mor ; and, as some think, in a consumption, 
and weary of everything. He showed me my 
Lord Arlington's house x that he was born in, 
in a town called Harrington : and so carried 
me through a most pleasant country to Bran- 
ford, and there put me into my boat, and good 
night. So I wrapped myself warm, and by 
water, got to Woolwich, about one in the 
morning. 

November 24dh. To London, and there, in 

1 Dawley House, near Hounslow, long- the seat of the Ben- 
net family. I Turlington, in which parish it is situated, gave 
the title of Baron and Earl to Sir Henry Bennet; the aspirate 
being- dropped (it may be said, " according to the custom of 
London "). The mansion was alienated by Ford Grey, Earl 
of Tankerville, to Viscount Bolingbroke, since which it has 
ofton changed owners. 

11 



162 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

my way, at my old oyster shop in Gracious 
Street, bought two barrels of my fine woman 
of the shop, who is alive after all the plague, 
which now is the first observation or inquiry 
we make at London concerning everybody we 
know. To the 'Change, where very busy with 
several people, and mightily glad to see the 
'Change so full, and hopes of another abate- 
ment still the next week. I went home with 
Sir G. Smith to dinner, sending for one of my 
barrels of oysters, which were good, though 
come from Colchester, where the plague hath 
been so much. Here a very brave dinner, 
though no invitation ; and, Lord ! to see how 
I am treated, that come from so mean a begin- 
ning, is matter of wonder to me. But it is 
God's mercy to me, and his blessing upon my 
taking pains, and being punctual in my deal- 
ings. Visited Mr. Evelyn, where most excel- 
lent discourse with him ; among other things, 
he showed me a ledger 1 of a Treasurer of the 
Navy, his great grandfather, just 100 years 
old ; which I seemed mighty fond of, and he 
did present me with it, which I take as a great 
rarity ; and he hopes to find me more, older 

i This ledger is now in the British Museum, amongst some 
of Fepys's Papers, in the Ducket Collection. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 163 

than it. He also showed us several letters of 
the old Lord of Leicester's, 1 in Queen Eliza- 
beth's time, under the very handwriting of 
Queen Elizabeth, and Queen Mary, Queen of 
Scots ; and others, very /venerable names. But, 
Lord ! how poorly, methinks, they wrote in 
those days, and in what plain uncut paper. 

26*7?. (Lord's Day.) Up before day to dress 
myself to go toward Erith, which I would do 
by land, it being a horrible cold frost to go by 
water : so borrowed two horses of Mr. Howell 
and his friend, and with much ado set out, after 
my horses being frosted, 2 which I know not 
what it means to this day, and my boy having 
lost one of my spurs and stockings, carrying 
them to the smith's, and I borrowed a stocking, 
and so got up, and Mr. Tooker with me, and 
rode to Erith, and there on board my Lord 
Brouncker met with Sir "VV. Warren upon his 
business, among others, and did a great deal ; 
Sir J. Minnes, as God would have it, not being 
there to hinder us with his impertinencies. To 

1 Among-st these documents, still in the Pepysian Library, 
— for Evelyn complains that he lent them to Pepys, who 
omitted to return them, — are some letters relating- to the 
death of Amy Kobsart, Lady Robert Dudley. 

2 Frosting- means, haying the horse's shoes turned up by 
the smith. 



164 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

my wife at Woolwich, where I found, as I had 
directed, a good dinner to be made against to- 
morrow, and invited guests in the yard, mean- 
ing to be merry, in order to her taking leave, 
for she intends to come in a day or two to me 
for altogether. But here, they tell me, one of 
the houses behind them is infected, and I was 
fain to stand there a great while, to have their 
back-doors opened, but they could not, having 
locked them fast, against any passing through, 
so was forced to pass by them again, close to 
their sick beds, which they were removing out 
of the house, which troubled me : so I made 
them uninvite their guests, and to resolve of 
coming all away to me to-morrow. 

December 25th. (Christmas Day.) To church 
in the morning, and there saw a wedding in the 
church, which I have not seen many a day ; 
and the young people so merry one with 
another ! and strange to see what delight we 
married people have to see these poor fools de- 
coyed into our condition, every man and woman 
gazing and smiling at them. Here I saw again 
my beauty Lethulier. Home to look over and 
settle my papers, both of my accounts private, 
and those of Tangier, which I have let go so 
long that it were impossible for any soul, had I 



MR. SECRETARY PETYS. 165 

died, to understand them, or ever come to good 
end in them. I hope God will never suffer me 
to come to that disorder again. 

26th. To the office, where Sir John Minnes 
and my Lord Brouncker and I met, to give our 
directions to the Commanders of all the ships 
in the river to bring in lists of their ships' 
companies, where young Seymour, among 20 
that stood bare, stood with his hat on — a 
proud, saucy young man. To Mr. Cuttle's, 
being invited, and dined nobly and neatly ; 
with a very pretty house and a fine turret at 
top, with winding stairs, and .the first prospect 
I know about all Greenwich, save the top of 
the hill. Saw some fine writing-work and 
flourishing of Mr. Hoare, with one that I knew 
long ago, an acquaintance of Mr. Tomson's at 
Westminster, that is this man's clerk. It is 
the story of the several Archbishops of Canter- 
bury, engrossed in vellum, to hang up in Can- 
terbury Cathedral in tables, in lieu of the old 
ones, which are almost worn out. 

27th. Home to my wife, and angry about 
her desiring a maid yet, before the plague is 
quite over. It seems Mercer is troubled that 
she hath not one under her, but I will not ven- 
ture my family by increasing it, before it is safe. 



166 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

30th. All the afternoon to my accounts ; and 
there find myself, to my great joy, a great deal 
worth, above 4000?., for which the Lord be 
praised ! and is principally occasioned by my 
getting 500?. of Cocke, for my profit in his bar- 
gains of prize goods, and from Mr. Gauden's 
making me a present of 500?. more, when I 
paid him 800?. for Tangier. 

31st. (Lord's Day.) Thus ends this year, to 
my great joy, in this manner. I have raised 
my estate from 1300?. in this year to 4400?. 
I have got myself greater interest, I think, by 
my diligence, and my employments increased 
by that of Treasurer for Tangier and Surveyor 
of the Victuals. It is true we have gone 
through great melancholy because of the great 
plague, and I put to great charges by it, by 
keeping my family long at Woolwich ; and my- 
self and another part of my family, my clerks, 
at my charge, at Greenwich, and a maid at 
London ; but I hope the King will give us some 
satisfaction for that. But now the plague is 
abated almost to nothing, and I intending to 
get to London as fast as I can. The Dutch 
war goes on very ill, by reason of lack of 
money ; having none to hope for, all being put 
into disorder by a new Act that is made as an 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 167 

experiment to bring credit to the Exchequer, 
for goods and money to be advanced upon the 
credit of that Act. The great evil of this year, 
and the only one indeed, is the fall of my Lord 
Sandwich, whose mistake about the prizes hath 
undone him, I believe, as to interest at Court; 
though sent, for a little palliating it, Embassa- 
dor into Spain, which he is now fitting himself 
for. But the Duke of Albemarle goes with the 
Prince to sea this next year, and my Lord is very 
meanly spoken of; and, indeed, his miscarriage 
about the prize goods is not to be excused, to 
suffer a company of rogues to go away with ten 
times as much as himself, and the blame of all 
to be deservedly laid upon him. My whole 
family hath been well all this while, and all my 
friends I know of, saving my aunt Bell, who is 
dead, and some children of my cousin Sarah's, 
of the plague. But many of such, as I know 
very well, dead ; yet, to our great joy, the town 
fills apace, and shops begin to be open again. 
Pray God continue the plague's decrease ! for 
that keeps the Court away from the place of 
business, and so all goes to rack as to public 
matters, they at this distance not thinking of it. 
January lsf, 1666. Called up by five o'clock 
by Mr. Tooker, who wrote, while I dictated to 



168 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

him, my business of the Parsers ; and so, with- 
out eating or drinking, till three in the after- 
noon, to my great content, finished it. 1 

2d. Up by candle-light again, and my business 
being done, to my Lord Brouncker's, and there 
find Sir J. Minnes and all his company, and 
Mr. Boreman and Mrs. Turner, but, above all, 
my dear Mrs. Knipp, with whom I sang, and 
in perfect pleasure I was to hear her sing, and 
especially her little Scotch song of c Barbary 
Allen ; ' and to make our mirth the completer, 
Sir J. Minnes was in the highest pitch of mirth, 
and his mimical tricks, that ever I saw, and 
most excellent pleasant company he is, and the 
best musique that ever I saw, and certainly 
would have made an excellent actor, and now 
would be an excellent teacher of actors. Then, 
it being past night, against my will, took leave. 

3d. I to the Duke of Albemarle and back 
again : and, at the Duke's, with great joy, I 

i This document is in the British Museum, and is entitled, 
" A Letter from Mr. Pepys, dated at Greenwich, 1 January, 
1665-6, which he calls his New Year's Gift to his honorable 
friend, Sir William Coventry, wherein he lays down a method 
for securing- his Majesty in husbandly execution of the Vic- 
tualling Part of the Naval Expense." It consists of nineteen 
closely written folio pages, and is a remarkable specimen of 
Pepys's business habits. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 169 

received the good news of the decrease of the 
plague this week to 70, and but 253 in all ; 
which is the least Bill hath been known these 
twenty years in the city, though the want of 
people in London is it, that must make it so 
low, below the ordinary number for Bills. So 
home, and find all my good company I had be- 
spoke, as Coleman and his wife, and Laneare, 
Knipp and her surly husband ; and good music 
we had, and among other things, Mr. Coleman 
sang my words I set, of ' Beauty, retire,' and 
they praise it mightily. Then to dancing and 
supper, and mighty merry till Mr. Rolt come 
in, whose pain of the toothache made him no 
company, and spoilt ours ; so he away, and 
then my wife's teeth fell of aching, and she to 
bed. So forced to break up all with a good 
song, and so to bed. 

6 th. I with my Lord Brouncker and Mrs. 
Williams by coach with four horses to London, 
to my Lord's house in Covent Garden. 1 But, 
Lord ! what staring to see a nobleman's coach 
come to town ! And porters everywhere bow 
to us ; and such begging of beggars ! And 
delightful it is to see the town full of people 

i In the Piazza; and one of the largest houses in what was 
;;io most fashionable part of Loudon. 



170 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

again ; and shops begin to open, though in 
many places seven or eight together, and more, 
all shut ; but yet the town is full, compared to 
what it used to be. I mean the City end ; for 
Covent Garden and Westminster are yet very 
empty of people, no Court nor gentry being 
there. Home, thinking to get Mrs. Knipp, but 
could not, she being busy with company, but 
sent me a pleasant letter, writing herself, c Bar- 
bary Allen.' Reading a discourse about the 
river of Thames, the reason of its being choked 
up in several places with shelfs : which is 
plain, is by the encroachments made upon the 
River, and running out of causeways into the 
River, at every wood-wharf: which was not 
heretofore, when Westminster Hall and White 
Hall were built, and HedrifFe Church, which 
now are sometimes overflown with water. 

6th. To a great dinner and much company. 
Mr. Cuttle and his lady and I went, hoping to 
get Mrs. Knipp to us, having wrote a letter to 
her in the morning, calling myself ' Dapper 
Dicky ' 1 in answer to hers of c Barbary Allen, 5 
but could not, and am told by the boy that car- 
ried my letter, that he found her crying ; and I 

1 A song called " Dapper Dicky " is in the British Museum; 
it begins, " In a barren tree." It was printed in 1710. 



MM. SECRETARY PEPYS. 171 

fear she lives a sad life with that ill-natured 
fellow her husband ; so we had a great, but I a 
melancholy dinner. After dinner to cards, and 
then comes notice that my wife is come unex- 
pectedly to me to town : so I to her. It is only 
to see what I do, and why I come not home ; 
and she is in the right that I would have a lit- 
tle more of Mrs. Knipp's company before I go 
away. My wife to fetch aAvay my things from 
Woolwich, and I back to cards, and after cards 
to choose King and Queen, and a good cake 
there was, but no marks found ; but I privately 
found the clove, the mark of the knave, and 
privately put it into Captain Cocke's piece, 
which made some mirth, because of his lately 
being known by his buying of clove and mace 
of the East India prizes. At night home to my 
lodging, where I find my wife returned with 
my things. It being Twelfth Night, they had 
got the fiddler, and mighty merry they were ; 
and I above, come not to them, leaving them 
dancing, and choosing King and Queen." 

During the great fire of London, September, 

1666, respecting which there are many curious 

details in the Diary, Pepys rendered the most 

atial service by sending up the artificers 

from the dock-yards, who adopted the plan, of 



172 MR. SEC LIE TAR Y PEP YS. 

blowing up houses, and in that way ultimately 
arrested the progress of the flames. 

" September 6th. Up about five o'clock, and 
met Mr. Gauden at the gate of the office, I 
intending to go out, as I used, every now and 
then, to-day, to see how the fire is, to call our 
men to Bishop's-gate, where no fire had yet 
been near, and there is now one broke out : 
which did give great grounds to people, and to 
me too, to think that there is some kind of plot 
in this, on which many by this time have been 
taken, and it hath been dangerous for any 
stranger to walk in the streets, but I went with 
the men, and Ave did put it out in a little time ; 
so that that was well again. It was pretty to 
see how hard the women did work in the ken- 
nels, sweeping of water ; but then they would 
scold for drink, and be as drunk as devils. I 
saw good butts of sugar broke open in the 
street, and people give and take handfuls out, 
and put into beer, and drink it. And now all 
being pretty well, I took boat, and over to 
►Southwarke, and took boat on the other side 
the bridge, and so to Westminster, thinking to 
shift myself, being all in dirt from top to bot- 
tom ; but could not there find any place to buy 
a shirt or a pair of gloves, Westminster Hall 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 173 

being full of people's goods, those in Westmin- 
ster having removed all their goods, and the 
Exchequer money put into vessels to carry to 
Nonsuch ; l but to the Swan, and there was 
trimmed : and then to White Hall, but saw no- 
body ; and so home. A sad sight to see how 
the river looks : no houses nor church near it, 
to the Temple, where it stopped. At home, 
did go with Sir W. Batten, and our neighbor, 
Knightly, who, with one more, was the only 
man of any fashion left in all the neighborhood 
thereabouts, they all removing their goods, and 
leaving their houses to the mercy of the fire ; 
to Sir R. Ford's, and there dined in an earthen 
platter — a fried breast of mutton ; a great- 
many of us, but very merry, and indeed as 
good a meal, though as ugly a one, as ever I 
had in my life. Thence down to Deptford, and 
there with great satisfaction landed all my 
goods at Sir G. Carteret's safe, and nothing 
missed I could see or hear. This being done 
to my great content, I home, and to Sir W. 
Batten's, and there, with Sir R. Ford, Mr. 
Knightly, and one Yv^ithers, a professed lying 
rogue, supped well, and mighty merry, and our 

1 At which house the Exchequer had been kept during the 
plague. 



174 MR, SECRETARY PEPYS. 

fears over. From them to the office, and there 
slept with the office full of laborers, who talked, 
and slept, and walked all night long there. But 
strange it is to see Clothworkers' Hall on fire 
these three days and nights in one body of 
flame, it being the cellar full of oil. 

7th. Up by five o'clock ; and blessed be God ! 
find all well ; and by water to Pane's Wharf. 1 
Walked thence, and saw all the town burned, 
and a miserable sight of Paul's church, with all 
the roofs fallen, and the body of the quire fallen 
into St. Fayth's ; Paul's school also, Ludgate 
and Fleet Street. My father's house, and the 
church, and a good part of the Temple the like. 
So to Creed's lodging, near the New Exchange, 
and there find him laid down upon a bed ; the 
house all unfurnished, there being fears of the 
fire's coming to them. There borrowed a shirt 
of him, and washed. To Sir W. Coventry at 
St. James's, who lay without curtains, having 
removed all his goods ; as the King at White 
Hall, and every body had done, and was doing. 
He hopes we shall have no public distractions 
upon this fire, which is what everybody fears, 
because of the talk of the French having a 
hand in it. And it is a proper time for discon- 

i Paul's Wharf. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 175 

tents ; but all men's minds are full of care to 
protect themselves and save their goods : the 
Militia is in arms everywhere. Our fleets, he 
tells me, have been in sight one of another, and 
most unhappily, by foul weather were parted, 
to our great loss, as in reason they do conclude ; 
the Dutch being come out only to make a show, 
and please their people ; but in very bad condi- 
tion as to stores, victuals, and men. They are 
at Boulogne, and our fleet come to St. Ellen's. 
We have got nothing, but have lost one ship, 
but he knows not what. Thence to the Swan, 
and there drank ; and so home, and find all 
well. My Lord Brouncker, at Sir W. Batten's, 
tells us the General 1 is sent for up, to come to 
advise w T ith the King about business at this 
juncture, and to keep all quiet ; which is great 
honor to him. but I am sure is but a piece of 
dissimulation. So home, and did give orders 
for my house to be made clean ; and then down 
to Woolwich, and there find all well. Dined, 
and Mrs. Markham come to see my wife. This 
day our Merchants first met at Gresham Col- 
lege, which, by proclamation, is to be their 
Exchange. Strange to hear what is bid for 
houses all up and down here ; a friend of Sir 

1 The Duke of Albemarle. * 



176 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

W. Eider's having 150Z. for what he used to let 
for 40L per annum. Much dispute where the 
Custom House shall be ; thereby the growth of 
the City again to be foreseen. My Lord Treas- 
urer, they say, and others, would have it at the 
other end of the town. I home late to Sir W. 
Penn's, who did give me a bed, but without cur- 
tains or hangings, all being down. So here I 
went the first time into a naked bed, only my 
drawers on ; and did sleep pretty well : but still 
both sleeping and waking had a fear of fire in 
my heart, that I took little rest. People do all 
the world over cry out of the simplicity of my 
Lord Mayor in general ; and more particularly 
in this business of the fire, laying it all upon 
him. A proclamation is come out for markets 
to be kept at Leaden-hall and Mile-end Greene, 
and several other places about the town ; and 
Tower Hill and all churches to be set open to 
receive poor people. 

November 9th. To Mrs. Pierce's by appoint- 
ment, where we find good company : a fair lady, 
my Lady Prettyman, 1 Mrs. Corbet, 2 Knipp, and 

1 Margaret, daughter and heir of Sir Matthew Mennes, K. B., 
and wife of Sir John Prettyman, Bart., M. P. for Leicester. 

2 There was an actress of this name. She played Cleoly, at 
the King's House, in Edward Howard's " Man of New- 
market," 1678. 



J/7?. SECRETARY PEPTS. Ill 

for men, Captain Downing, Mr. Lloyd, Sir W. 
Coventry's clerk, and one Mr. Tripp, who dances 
well. After our first bout of dancing, Knipp 
and I to sing, and Mercer and Captain Down- 
ing, who loves and understands music, would 
by all means have my song of ' Beauty, re- 
tire : ' which Knipp had spread abroad, and he 
extols it above anything he ever heard. Going 
to dance again, and then comes news that White 
Hall was on fire ; and presently more particu- 
lars, that the Horse-guard was on fire ; * and so 
we run up to the garret, and find it so ; a horrid 
great fire ; and by and by we saw and heard 
part of it blown up with powder. The ladies 
begun presently to be afraid : one fell into fits. 
The whole town in an alarm. Drums beat and 
trumpets, and the Horse-guards every where 
spread, running up and down in the street. And 



1 " November 9th. Between seven and eight at night, 
there happened a fire in the Horse Guard House, in the Tilt 
Yard, over against Whitehall, which at first arising, it is 
supposed, from some snuff of a candle falling amongst the 
straw, broke out with so sudden a flame, that at once it seized 
the north-west part of that building ; but being so close under 
His Majesty's own eye, it was, by the timely help His Majesty 
and His Royal Highness caused to be applied, immediately 
stopped, and by ten o'clock wholly mastered, with the loss 
only of that part of the building it had at first seized."— The 
London G^izette, No. 103. 

12 



178 MB. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

I begun to have mighty apprehensions how 
things might be, for we are in expectation from 
common fame, this night, or to-morrow, to have 
a massacre, by the having so many fires one 
after another, as that in the City, and at same 
time begun in Westminster, by the Palace, but 
put out ; and since in South warke, to the burn- 
ing down some houses ; and now this do make 
all people conclude there is something extraor- 
dinary in it ; but nobody knows what. By 
and by comes news that the fire is slackened ; 
so then we were a little cheered up again, and 
to supper, and pretty merry. But, above all, 
there comes in the dumb boy that I knew in 
Oliver's time, who is mightily acquainted here, 
and with Downing ; and he made strange signs 
of the fire, and how the King was abroad, and 
many things they understood, but I could not, 
which I wondered at ; and discoursing with 
Downing about it, ' Why,' says he, ' it is only 
a little use, and you will understand him, and 
make him understand you with as much ease 
as may be.' So I prayed him to tell him that 
I was afraid that my coach would be gone, and 
that he should go down and steal one of the 
seats out of the coach and keep it, and that 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 179 

would make the coachman to stay. He did 
this, so that the dumb boy did go down, and, 
like a cunning rogue, went into the coach, pre- 
tending to sleep ; and, by and by, fell to his 
work, but finds the seats nailed to the coach. 
So he could not do it ; however, staid there, 
and staid the coach till the coachman's patience 
was quite spent, and beat the dumb boy by force, 
and so went away. So the dumb boy came up, 
and told him all the story, which they below 
did see all that passed, and knew it to be true. 
After supper, another dance or two, and then 
news that the fire is as great as ever, which 
puts us all to our wits'-end ; and I mightily 
anxious to go home, but the coach being gone, 
and it being about ten at night, and rainy, dirty 
weather, I knew not what to do, but to walk 
out with Mr. Batelier, myself resolving to go 
home on foot, and leave the women there. And 
so did ; but at the Savoy got a coach, and come 
back and took up the women ; and so, having, 
by people come from the fire, understood that 
the fire was overcome and all well, we merrily 
parted, and home. Stopped by several guards 
and constables quite through the town, round 
the wall, as we went, all being in arms. Being 



180 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

come home, we to cards, till two in the morning, 
and drinking lamb's-wool. 1 So to bed. 

December 25th. (Christmas Day.) Lay pretty 
long in bed, and then rose, leaving my wife desi- 
rous to sleep, having sat up till four this morning 
seeing her maids make mince-pies. I to church, 
where our parson Mills made a good sermon. 
Then home, and dined well on some good ribs 
of beef roasted, and mince-pies ; only my wife, 
brother, and Barker, and plenty of good wine of 
my own, and my heart full of true joy ; and thanks 
to God Almighty for the goodness of my condi- 
tion at this day. After dinner, I begun to teach 
my wife and Barker my song, ; It is decreed,' 
which pleases me mightily. Walked alone on 
foot to the Temple, thinking to have seen a play 
all alone ; but there, missing of any bills, con- 
cluded there was none, and so back home ; and 
there with my brother reducing the names of 
all my books to an alphabet, and then to supper 
and to bed. 

2Qth. To the Duke's house, to a play. It 
was indifferently done, Gosnell not singing, but 
a new wench, that sings naughtily. Thence 
home, and there Mr. Andrews to the viol, who 

1 A beverage made of ale, mixed with sugar, nutmeg, and 
the pulp of roasted apples. 



J/7?. SECRETARY PEPYS. 181 

plays most excellently on it. Thence to dance, 
here being Pembleton come, by my wife's direc- 
tion, and a fiddler ; and we got, also, the elder 
Batelier to-night, and Nan Wright, and mighty 
merry we were, and danced ; and so till twelve 
at night, and to supper, and then to cross pur- 
poses, mighty merry, and then to bed." 

Our annalist, as the observant reader must 
have noticed, was a constant and critical habi- 
tue of the theatre. A week is seldom allowed 
to pass without his witnessing a play, with 
which he is often dissatisfied and " ill pleased ;" 
but, after a careful study of his Diary, we have 
failed to discover that the sturdy Briton of the 
seventeenth century was addicted to expressing 
his displeasure in such an emphatic manner as 
prevailed among members of Congress in the 
days of Andrew Jackson, videlicet — shooting 
at the actors. Here is the record of one of 
those terrible dramatic critics : The Hon. James 
Blair, M. C. from South Carolina, attended 
the Washington theatre one evening in March, 
1834, when, the players displeasing him, he 
drew his pistol and fired at the actors on the 
stage, the bullet passing just above the head of 
Miss Jefferson, daughter of Joe Jefferson, Sen. 
The players stampeded from the stage, and a 



182 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

quick curtain was run down. Presently the 
manager appeared, looking pale and agitated, 
and said to the audience, " Ladies and gentle- 
men, if there is to be shooting at the actors on 
the stage, it will be impossible for the per- 
formance to go on ! " 

Our next citation, and the first segregated 
from the year 1667, is concerning a duel and 
another matter, being a part of Pepys's record 
for July 29th. . . . " Cousin Roger and Creed 
to dinner with me, and very merry : but among 
other things they told me of the strange, bold 
sermon of Dr. Creeton yesterday, before the 
King ; how he preached against the sins of the 
Court, and particularly against adultery ; over 
and over instancing how for that single sin in 
David, the whole nation was undone ; and of 
our negligence in having our castles without 
ammunition and powder when the Dutch came 
upon us ; and how we have no courage nowa- 
days, but let our ships be taken out of our har- 
bor. Here Creed did tell us the story of the duel 
last night, in Covent-garden, between Sir H. Bel- 
lassis and Tom Porter. It is worth remember- 
ing the silliness of the quarrel, and is a kind of 
emblem of the general complexion of this whole 
kingdom at present. They two dined yesterday 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 183 

at Sir Robert Carr's, 1 where it seems people do 
drink high, all that come. It happened that 
these two, the greatest friends in the world, 
were talking together : and Sir H. Bellassis 
talked a little louder than ordinary to Tom 
Porter, giving of him some advice. Some of 
the company standing by said, ' What ! are 
they quarrelling, that they talk so high ? ' Sir 
H. Bellassis, hearing it, said, c No ! ' says he : 
1 I would have you know I never quarrel, but 
I strike ; and take that as a rule of mine ! * 
; How ? ' says Tom Porter, ' strike ! I would 
I could see the man in England that durst give 
me a blow ! ' With that Sir H. Bellassis did 
give him a box of the ear ; and so they were 
going to fight there, but were hindered. And 
by and by Tom Porter went out ; and meeting 
Dryden the poet, told him of the business, and 
that he was resolved to fight Sir H. Bellassis 
presently ; for he knew, if he did not, they 
should be friends to-morrow, and then the blow 
would rest upon him ; which he would prevent, 
and desired Dryden to let him have his boy to 
bring him notice which way Sir II. Bellassis 
goes. By and by he is informed that Sir H. 

1 Baronet, of Sleaford, Lincolnshire, and one of the pro- 
poser! Knights of the Royal Oak for that county. 



184 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

Bellassis' coach was coming : so Tom Porter 
went out of the Coffee-house where he staid for 
the tidings, and stopped the coach, and bade Sir 
H. Bellassis come out. ' Why,' says H. Bel- 
lassis, ' you will not hurt me coming out, will 
you?' — 'No,' says Tom Porter. So out he 
went, and both drew : and H. Bellassis having 
drawn and flung away his scabbard, Tom Por- 
ter asked him whether he was ready? The 
other answering him he was, they fell to fight, 
some of their acquaintance by. They wounded 
one another, and H. Bellassis so much that it is 
feared he will die : and finding himself severely 
wounded, he called to Tom Porter, and kissed 
him, and bade him shift for himself; 'for,' 
says he, ' Tom, thou hast hurt me ; but I will 
make shift to stand upon my legs till thou may- 
est withdraw, and the world not take notice of 
you, for I would not have thee troubled for what 
thou hast done.' And so whether he did fly or 
no I cannot tell ; but Tom Porter showed H. 
Bellassis that he was wounded too : and they 
are both ill, but H. Bellassis to fear of life. 
And this is a fine example ; and H. Bellassis a 
Parliament-man, 1 too, and both of them extraor- 
dinary friends ! . . . Cousin Roger did acquaint 

1 He was serving for Grimsby. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 185 

me in private with an offer made of his marry- 
ing of Mrs. Elizabeth Wiles, whom I know ; a 
kinswoman of Mr. Honiwood's, an ugly old 
maid, but good housewife, and is said to have 
2500L to her portion ; but if I can find that she 
has but 2000/., which he prays me to examine, 
he says he will have her, she being one he had 
long known intimately, and a good housewife, 
and discreet woman ; though I am against it in 
my heart, she being not handsome at all : and 
it hath been the very bad fortune of the Pepyses 
that ever I knew, never to marry an handsome 
woman, excepting Ned Pepys." Y 

On the 22d of January, 1668, Pepys goes* 
with my Lord Brouncker to dine at Sir D. Gau- 
den's, where u a good dinner and much good 
company, and a fine house, and especially two 
rooms very fine, he hath built there. His lady 
a good lady : but my Lord led himself and me 
to a great absurdity in kissing all the ladies, but 
the first of all the company, leaving her out — I 
know not how ; and I was loath to do it since 
he omitted it." On the last day of the same 
month, he records, " It is observed, and is true, 

1 Edward Pepys, of Broomsthorpe, who married Elizabeth 
Walpole. The author's own wife could not be included 
amongst the plain women whom the Pepyses married? — it 18 
otherwise well for his domestic peace that he wrote in cipher. 



186 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

in the late fire of London, that the fire burned 
just as many parish-churches as there were 
hours from the beginning to the end of the 
fire : and next, that there were *just as many 
churches left standing as there were taverns left 
standing in the rest of the City that was not 
burned, being, I think, thirteen in all of each, 
which is pretty to observe. 

February 1st. To the office till past two 
o'clock, where at the Board some high words 
passed between Sir W. Penn and I, begun by 
me, and yielded to by him, I being in the right 
in finding fault with him for his neglect of duty. 
*Home, my head mighty full of business now on 
my hands, viz., of finishing my Tangier Ac- 
counts ; of auditing my last year's Accounts ; 
of preparing answers to the Commissioners of 
Accounts ; of drawing up several important let- 
ters to the Duke of York and the Commissioners 
of the Treasury ; the marrying of my sister ; 
the building of a coach and stables against sum- 
mer, and the setting many things in the office 
right ; and the drawing up a new form of Con- 
tract with the Victualler of the Navy, and sev- 
eral other things, which pains, however, will go 
through with. 

2d. (Lord's Day.) All the morning set- 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 187 

ting my books in order in my presses, for the 
following year, their number being much in- 
creased since the last, so as I am fain to lay by 
several books to make room for better, being 
resolved to keep no more than just my presses 
will contain. A very good dinner we had, of a 
powdered leg of pork and a loin of lamb roasted. 

3d. To the Duke of York's house, to the 
piay, " The Tempest/' which we have often 
seen, and particularly this day I took pleasure 
to learn the time of the seaman's dance. 

4dh. To Kate Joyce's, where the jury did 
sit where they did before, about her husband's 
death, and their verdict put off for fourteen 
days longer, at the suit of somebody, under 
pretence of the King ; but it is only to get 
money out of her to compound the matter. 
But the truth is, something they will make out 
of Stillingfleete's sermon, which may trouble us, 
he declaring, like a fool, in his pulpit, that he 
did confess that his losses in the world did make 
him do what he did. This vexes me to see how 
foolish our Protestant Divines are, while the 
Papists do make it the duty of Confessor to be 
secret, or else nobody would confess their sins 
to them. All being put off for to-day, I took 
my leave of Kate, who is mightily troubled at 



188 ME, SECRETARY PEPYS. 

it for her estate sake, not for her husband ; for 
her sorrow for that, I perceive, is all over. 

5th. To the Commissioners of Accounts, 
where I was called in, and did take an oath to 
declare the truth to what they should ask me, 
which is a great power, I doubt more than the 
Act do, or as some say can, give them, to force 
a man to swear against himself; and so they 
fell to inquire about the business of prize-goods, 
wherein I did answer them as well as I could, 
in everything the just truth, keeping myself to 
them. I do perceive, at last, that that they do 
lay most like a fault to me was, that I did buy 
goods upon my Lord Sandwich's declaring that 
it was with the King's allowance, and my be- 
lieving it, without seeing the King's allowance, 
which is a thing I will own, and doubt not to 
justify myself in. But what vexed me most 
was, their having some watermen by, to witness 
my saying that they were rogues that had be- 
trayed my goods, which was upon some discon- 
tent with one of the watermen that I employed at 
Greenwich, who I did think did discover the goods 
sent from Rochester to the Custom-House officer ; 
but this can do me no great harm. They were 
inquisitive into the minutest particulars, and had 
had great information ; but I think that they can 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 189 

do nie no hurt — at the worst, more than to make 
me refund, if it must be known, what profit I 
did make of my agreement with Captain Cocke ; 
and yet, though this be all, I do find so poor a 
spirit within me, that it makes me almost out 
of my wits, and puts me to so much pain, that 
I cannot think of anything, nor do anything but 
vex and fret, and imagine myself undone. 
After they had done with me, they called in 
Captain Cocke, with whom they were shorter ; 
and I do fear he may answer foolishly ; but I 
hope to preserve myself, and let him shift for 
himself as well as he can. Mr. Cooke come 
for my Lady Sandwich's plate, which I must 
part with, and so endanger the losing of my 
money, which I lent upon my thoughts of secur- 
ing myself by that plate. But it is no great 
sum — but 60/. : and if it must be lost, better 
that, than a greater sum. I away back again, 
to find a dinner anywhere else, and so I, first, 
to the Ship Tavern, thereby to get a sight of 
the pretty mistress of the house, with whom I 
am not yet acquainted at all, and I do always 
find her scolding, and do believe she is an ill- 
natured devil, that I have no great desire to 
speak to her. Mr. Moore mightily commends my 
Lord Hinchingbroke\s match and Lady, though 



190 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

he buys her 10,000£. dear, by the jointure and 
settlement his father makes her ; and says that 
the Duke of York and Duchess of York did 
come to see them in bed together, on their 
wedding-night, and how my Lord had fifty 
pieces of gold taken out of his pocket that 
night, after he was in bed. He tells me that 
an Act of Comprehension is likely to pass this 
Parliament, for admitting of all persuasions in 
religion to the public observation of their par- 
ticular worship, but in certain places, and the 
persons therein concerned to be listed of this, or 
that Church ; which, it is thought, will do them 
more hurt than good, and make them not own 
their persuasion. He tells me that there 
is a pardon passed to the Duke of Buck- 
ingham, and my Lord of Shrewsbury, and 
the rest, for the late duel and murder ; * which 
he thinks a worse fault than any ill use my late 

1 The Royal pardon was thus announced in the Gazette of 
February 24, 1668 : " This day his Majesty was pleased to 
declare at the Board, that whereas, in contemplation of the 
eminent services heretofore done to his Majesty by most of 
the persons who were engaged in the late duel or rencontre, 
wherein William Jenkins was killed, he doth graciously par- 
don the said offence : nevertheless, He i3 resolved from hence- 
forth that on no pretence whatsoever any pardon shall be 
hereafter granted to any person whatsoever for killing of any 
man, in any duel or rencontre, but that the course of law shall 
wholly take place in all such cases." 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 191 

Lord Chancellor ever put the Great Seal to, and 
will be so thought by the Parliament, for them 
to be pardoned without bringing them to any 
trial : and that my Lord Privy-Seal therefore 
would not have it pass his hand, but made it go 
by immediate warrant ; or at least they knew 
that he would not pass it, and so did direct it to 
go by immediate warrant, that it might not come 
to him. He tells me what a character my Lord 
Sandwich hath sent over of Mr. Godolphin, as 
the worthiest man, and such a friend to him as 
he may be trusted in anything relating to him 
in the world ; as one from whom, he says, he hath 
infallible assurances that he will remain his 
friend ; which is very high, but indeed they say 
the gentleman is a fine man. 

6th. Sir H. Cholmly tells me how the Parlia- 
ment, which is to meet again to-day, are likely 
to fall heavy on the business of the Duke of 
Buckingham's pardon ; and I shall be glad of 
it : and that the King hath put out of the Court 
the two Hides, 1 my Lord Chancellor's two sons, 
and also the Bishops of Rochester 2 and Win- 
chester, 3 the latter of whom should have 



1 Lord Cornbury and Laurence Hyde . 

2 John Dolben, afterwards Archbishop of York. 

3 George Morley. 



192 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

preached before him yesterday, being Ash- 
Wednesday, and had his sermon ready, but was 
put by ; which is great news. My wife being 
gone before, I to the Duke of York's playhouse ; 
where a new play of Etheredge's, 1 called ' She. 
Would if she Could ; • and though I was there 
by two o'clock, there was 1000 people put back 
that could not have room in the pit ; and I at 
last, because my wife was there, made shift to 
get into the lSd. box, and there saw ; but, 
Lord ! how full was the house, and how silly 
the play, there being nothing in the world good 
in it, and few people pleased in it. The King 
was there ; but 1 sat mightily behind, and could 
see but little, and hear not all. The play being 
done, I into the pit to look for my wife, it 
being dark and raining, but could not find her ; 
and so staid going between the two doors and 
through the pit an hour and a half, I think, 
after the play was done ; the people staying 
there till the rain was over, and to talk with 
one another. And, among the rest, here was 
the Duke of Buckingham to-day openly sat in 



1 Sir George Etherege, the celebrated wit and dramatic 
writer. He is said to have died in France, subsequently to 
the Revolution, having followed the fortunes of his royal 
master, James II. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 193 

the pit ; and there I found him with my Lord 
Buckhurst, and Sedley, and Etheredge, the poet ; 
the last of whom I did hear mightily find fault 
with the actors, that they were out of humor, 
aud had not their parts perfect, 1 and that Harris 
did do nothing, nor could so much as sing a 
ketch in it ; and so was mightily concerned : 
while all the rest did, through the whole pit, 
blame the play as a silly, dull thing, though 
there was something very roguish and witty ; 
but the design of the play, and end, mighty in- 
sipid. At last I did find my wife ; and with 
her was Betty Turner, Mercer, and Deb. So I 
got a coach, and a humor took us, and I carried 
them to Hercules Pillars, and there did give 
them a kind of a supper of about 7s., and very 
merry, and home round the town, not through 
the ruins : and it was pretty how the coachman 
by mistake drives us into the ruins from Lon- 
don-wall into Coleman Street : and would per- 
suade me that I lived there. And the truth is, 
I did think that he and the linkman had con- 
trived some roguery ; but it proved only a mis- 
take of the coachman ; but it was a cunning 

1 Shad well confirms this complaint of Etherege's in the 
Preface to his own Humorists. Harris played Sir Josceline 

Jolly. 

13 



194 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

place to have done us a mischief in, as any I 
know, to drive ns out of the road into the ruins, 
and there stop, while nobody could be called to 
help us. But we come safe home. 

7th. Met my cousin, Roger Pepys, the Par- 
liament meeting yesterday and adjourned to 
Monday next ; and here he tells me that Mr. 
Jackson, my sister's servant, 1 is come to town, 
and hath this day suffered a recovery on his 
estate, in order to the making her a settlement. 
There is a great trial between my Lord Gerard 
and Carr to-day, who is indicted for his life at 
the King's Bench, for running from his colors ; 
but ail do say that my Lord Gerard, though he 
designs the ruin of this man, will not get any- 
thing by it. To the Commissioners of Ac- 
counts, and there presented my books, and was 
made to sit down, and used with much respect, 
otherwise than the other day, when I come to 
them as a criminal about the business of prizes. 
I sat here with them a great while, while my 
books were inventoried. I find these gentle- 
men to sit all day, and only eat a bit of bread 
at noon, and a glass of wine ; and are resolved 
to go through their business with great severity 
and method. Met by cousin Roger again, and Mr. 

1 i. e., suitor. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 195 

Jackson, who is a plain young man, handsome 
enough for Pall, one of no education nor dis- 
course, but of few words, and one altogether 
that, I think, will please me well enough. My 
cousin had got me to give the odd sixth 100L 
presently, which I intended to keep to the birth 
of the first child : and let it go — I shall be 
eased of the care. So there parted, my mind 
pretty well satisfied with this plain fellow for 
my sister, though I shall, I see, have no pleas- 
ure nor content in him, as if he had been a man 
of reading and parts, like Cumberland. Lord 
Brouncker, and W. Pen, and I, and with us Sir 
Arnold Breames, to the King's playhouse, and 
there saw a piece of 4 Love in a Maze,' a dull, 
silly play, 1 think ; and after the play, home 
with W. Pen and his son Lowther, whom we 
met there. 

9th. Cousin Roger and Jackson by appoint- 
ment come to dine with me, and Creed, and 
very merry, only Jaokson hath few words, and 
I like him never the worse for it. The great 
talk is of Carr's coming off in all his trials, to 
the disgrace of my Lord Gerard, to that degree, 
and the ripping up of so many notorious rogue- 
ries and cheats of my Lord's, that my Lord, it 
is thought, will be ruined ; and, above all, do 



196 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 



show the madness of the House of Commons, 
who rejected the petition of this poor man by a 
combination of a few in the House ; and, much 
more, the base proceedings, just the epitome of 
all our public managements in this age, of the 
House of Lords, that ordered him to stand in 
the pillory for those very things, without hear- 
ing and examining what he hath now, by the 
seeking of my Lord Gerard himself, cleared 
himself of, in open Court, to the gaining him- 
self the pity of all the world, and shame for- 
ever to my Lord Gerard. To the Strand, to 
my bookseller's, and there bought an idle ro- 
guish French book, which I have bought in plain 
binding, avoiding the buying of it better bound, 
because I resolve, as soon as I have read it, to 
burn it, that it may not stand in the list of 
books, nor among them, to disgrace them if it 
should be found. My wife well pleased with 
my sister's match, and designing how to be 
merry at their marriage." 

One of the most characteristic, and at the 
same time creditable pieces of naivete that we 
meet with in Samuel's journal, is the account 
he gives of the tremendous success of an orator- 
ical broadside which he delivered at the bar of 
the House of Commons some two months after 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 197 

the date of our last extract, in explanation and 
defence of alleged mismanagements in the navy, 
a subject then under discussion in that assembly. 
Parliament probably knew very little about the 
business, and no one, probably, was so well in- 
formed as Pepys ; and this, doubtless, was the 
great merit of his discourse, and the secret of 
his success. Willing as we are to give the Sec- 
retary credit for industry, clearness, and good 
judgment, we think it perfectly evident from 
his manner of writing, and from the fact of his 
subsequent obscurity in Parliament, that he 
could never have had any pretensions to the 
character of an orator. Be that as it may, the 
effort gave singular satisfaction to its worthy au- 
thor : " Vexed and sickish to bed, and there 
slept about three hours, and then waked, and 
never in so much trouble in all my life, thinking 
of the task I have upon me, and upon what dis- 
satisfactory grounds, and what the issue of it 
may be to me." This passage occurs in his 
Diary, March 4. The following day he says, — 
u btlt. With these thoughts I lay troubling my- 
self till six o'clock, restless, and at last getting 
my wife to talk to me to comfort me, which she 
at last did, and made me resolve to quit my 
hands of this Office, and endure the trouble no 



198 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

longer than I can clear myself of it. So with 
great trouble, but yet with some ease, from the 
discourse with my wife, I up, and at my Office, 
whither come my clerks, and I did huddle the 
best I could some more notes for my discourse 
to-day, and by nine o'clock was ready, and did 
go down to the Old Swan, and there by boat, 
with T. Harvey and W. Hewer with me, to 
Westminster, where I found myself come time 
enough, and my brethren all ready. But I full 
of thoughts and trouble touching the issue of 
this day ; and, to comfort myself, did go to the 
Dog and drink half-a-pint of mulled sack, and 
in the Hall [Westmister] did drink a dram of 
brandy at Mrs. Hewlett's ; and with the warmth 
of this did find myself in better order as to 
courage, truly. So we all up to the lobby ; and 
between eleven or twelve o'clock, were called 
in, with the mace before us, into the House, 
where a mighty full House ; and we stood at 
the bar, namely, Brouncker, Sir J. Minnes, Sir 
T. Harvey, and myself, W. Pen being in the 
House, as a member. I perceive the whole 
House was full of expectation of our defence 
what it would be, and with great prejudice. 
After the Speaker had told us the dissatisfaction 
of the House, and read the Report of the Com- 



MR. SECRETARY PEP VS. 199 

mittee, I began our defence most acceptably and 
smoothly, and continued at it without any hesi- 
tation or loss, but with full scope, and all my 
reason free about me, as if it had been at my 
own table, from that time till past three in the 
afternoon ; and so ended, without any interrup- 
tion from the Speaker ; but we withdrew. And 
there all my Fellow-Officers, and all the world 
that was within hearing, did congratulate me, 
and cry up my speech as the best thing they 
ever heard ; and my Fellow-Officers were over- 
joyed in it ; and we were called in again by 
and by to answer only one question, touching 
our paying tickets to ticket-mongers ; and so 
out ; and we were in hopes to have had a vote 
this day in our favor, and so the generality of 
the House was ; but my speech, being so long, 
many had gone out to dinner and come in again 
half drunk ; and then there are two or three 
that are professed enemies to us and everybody 
else ; among others, Sir T. Littleton, Sir 
Thomas Lee, 1 Mr. Wiles, the coxcomb whom I 
saw heretofore at the cock-fighting, and few 
others ; 1 say, these did rise up and speak 
against the coming to a vote now, the House 
not being full, by reason of several being at 

1 Of Hartwell, Bucks; created a Baronet 1000. 



200 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

dinner, but most because that the House was to 
attend the King this afternoon, about the busi- 
ness of religion, wherein they pray him to put 
in force all the laws against Nonconformists and 
Papists ; and this prevented it, so that they put 
it off to to-morrow come se'nnigbt. However, 
it is plain we have got great ground ; and every- 
body says I have got the most honor that any 
could have had opportunity of getting ; and 
so our hearts mightily overjoyed at this success. 
We all to dinner to my Lord Brouncker's — 
that is to say, myself, T. Harvey, and W. Pen, 
and there dined ; and thence to Sir Anthony 
Morgan, who is an acquaintance of Brouncker's, 
a very wise man : we after dinner to the King's 
house, and there saw part of 6 The Discontent- 
ed Colonel.' To my wife, whom W. Hewer 
had told of my success, and she overjoyed ; and, 
after talking awhile, I betimes to bed, having 
had no quiet rest a good while. 

6th. Up betimes, and with Sir D. Gauden to 
Sir W. Coventry's chamber : where the first 
words he said to me was, " Good-morrow, Mr. 
Pepys, that must be Speaker of the Parliament- 
house : " and did protest I had got honor for- 
ever in Parliament. He said that his brother, 1 

1 Henry Coventry. 



MM. SECRETARY PEPYS. 201 

that sat by him, admires me ; and another gen- 
tleman said that I could not get less than 1000L 
a-year if I would put on a gown and plead at 
the Chaneery-bar ; but, what pleases me most, 
he tells me that the Solicitor-General l did pro- 
test that he thought I spoke the best of any man 
in England. After several talks with him alone, 
touching his own businesses, he carried me to 
White Hall, and there parted ; and I to the 
Duke of York's lodgings, and find him going to 
the Park, it being a very fine morning, and I 
after him ; and as soon as he saw me, he told 
me, with great satisfaction, that I had convert- 
ed a great many yesterday, and did, with great 
praise of me, go on with the discourse with me. 
And, by and by, overtaking the King, the King 
and Duke of York came to me both ; and he 2 
said, s Mr. Pepys, I am very glad of your suc- 
cess yesterday ; ' and fell to talk of my well 
speaking ; and many of the Lords there. My 
Lord Berkeley did cry me up for what they had 
heard of it ; and others, Parliament-men there, 
about the King, did say that they never heard such 
a speech in their lives delivered in that manner. 
Progcrs, of the Bedchamber, swore to me after- 

1 Sir Heneage Finch. 
- The King. 



202 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

wards before Brouncker, in the afternoon, that 
he did tell the King that he thought I might 
match the Solicitor-General. Everybody that 
saw me almost came to me, as Joseph William- 
son and others, with such eulogies as cannot be 
expressed. From thence I went to Westmin- 
ster Hall, where I met Mr. G. Montagu, who 
came to me and kissed me, and told me that he 
had often heretofore kissed my hands, but now 
he would kiss my lips : protesting that I was 
another Cicero, and said, all the world said the 
same of me. Mr. Ashburnham, and every 
creature I met there of the Parliament, or that 
knew anything of the Parliament's actings, did 
salute me with this honor : — Mr. Godolphin ; 
— Mr. Sands, who swore he would go twenty 
miles, at any time, to hear the like again, and 
that he never saw so many sit four hGurs 
together to hear any man in his life, as there 
did to hear me ; Mr. Chichly, — Sir John Dun- 
comb, — and everybody do say that the king- 
dom will ring of my abilities, and that I have 
done myself right for my whole life : and so 
Captain Cocke, and others of my friends, say 
that no man had ever such an opportunity of 
making his abilities known ; and, that I may 
cite all at once, Mr. Lieutenant of the Tower 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 203 

did tell me that Mr. Vaughan did protest to 
him, and that in his hearing, he said so to the 
Duke of Albemarle, and afterwards to Sir W. 
Coventry, that he had sat twenty-six years in 
Parliament and never heard such a speech there 
before ; for which the Lord God make me 
thankful ! and that I may make use of it not to 
pride and vain-glory, but that, now I have this 
esteem, I may do nothing that may lessen it ! I 
spent the morning thus walking in the Hall, 
being complimented by everybody with admira- 
tion : and at noon stepped into the Legg with 
Sir William Warren, who was in the Hall, and 
there talked about a little of his business, and 
thence into the Hall a little more, and so with 
him by coach as far as the Temple almost, and 
there 'light, to follow my Lord Brouncker's 
coach, which I spied, and so to Madam Wil-. 
liams's, where I overtook him, and agreed upon 
meeting this afternoon. To White Hall, to 
wait on the Duke of York, where he again and 
all the company magnified me, and several in 
the Gallery : among others, my Lord Gerard, 
who never knew me before nor spoke to me, de- 
sires his being better acquainted with me ; and 
[said] that, at table where lie was, he never 
heard so much said of any man as of me, in his 



204 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

whole life. So waited on the Duke of York, 
and thence into the Gallery, where the House 
of Lords waited the King's coming out of the 
Park, which he did by and by ; and there, in 
the Vane-room, my Lord Keeper delivered a 
message to the King, the Lords being about 
him, wherein the Barons of Eogland, from 
many good arguments very well expressed in 
the part he read out of, do demand precedence 
in England of all noblemen of either of the 
King's other two kingdoms, be their title what 
it will ; and did show that they were in Eng- 
land reputed but as Commoners, and sat in the 
House of Commons, and at conferences with 
the Lords did stand bare. It was mighty worth 
my hearing : but the King did only say that he 
would consider of it, and so dismissed them. 1 
Thence, with the Lieutenant of the Tower, in 
his coach home ; and there, with great pleasure, 
with my wife, talking and playing at cards a lit- 
tle — she, and I, and W. Hewer, and Deb. 

7th. Mercer, my wife, Deb., and I, to the 
King's playhouse, and there saw " The Spanish 
Gipseys," 2 the second time of acting, and the 

1 The point of precedence was settled by the Act of Union. 
They have rank next after the peers of the like degree in Eng- 
land at the time of the Union. 

2 " The Spanish GipsicV a comecly, by T. Middleton and W. 
Rowley. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 205 

first I saw it. A very silly play, only great 
variety of dances, and those most excellently 
done, especially one part by one Hanes, 1 only 
lately come thither from the Nursery, an under- 
standing fellow, but yet, they say, hath spent 
1000£. a-year before he come thither. This 
day my wife and I full of thoughts about Mrs. 
Pierce's sending me word that she, and my old 
company, Harris and Knipp, would come and 
dine with us next Wednesday, how we 'should 
do — to receive or put them off, my head being, 
at this time, so full of business, and my wife in 
no mind to have them neither, and yet I de- 
sire it. 

8th. (Lord's Day.) To White Hall, where 
met with very many people still that did congratu- 
late my speech the other day in the House of 

i The famous Joseph Haynes, who was so popular, that two 
biographies of him were printed in 1701, after his death. One 
of them, entitled The Life of the famous Comedian Jo. Haynes, 
containing his Comical Exploits and Adventures, both at 
Jlome and Abroad, 8vo, states that he had acted under Captain 
Bedford, •' whilst the playhouse in Hatton Garden lasted." 
This must have been the " Nursery " here alluded to by 
Pepys. Barnes was the first actor on record who delivered a 
pie sitting on an ass. He was soon afterwards followed 
i.i his folly by Pinkethman ; and by Liston, in our day. 
Haynes seems to have been a low comedian, and a capital 
dancer. One dramatic piece is attributed to him, " A Fatal 
Mistake," 4to, II 



206 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

Commons, arid I find all the world almost rings 
of it. With Sir W. Coventry, who I find full 
of care in his own business, how to defend himself 
against those that have a mind to choke him ; 
and though, I believe, not for honor and for the 
keeping his employment, but for safety and rep- 
utation's sake, is desirous to preserve himself 
free from blame. He desires me to get infor- 
mation against Captain Tatnell, thereby to 
diminish his testimony, who, it seems, hath a 
mind to do W. Coventry hurt : and I will do it 
with all my heart ; for Tatnell is a very rogue. 
He would be glad, too, that I could find any- 
thing proper for his taking notice against Sir F. 
Hollis. To dinner with Sir G-. Carteret to 
Lincoln's Inn Fields, where I find mighty deal 
of cohipany — a solemn day for some of his 
and her friends, and dine in the great dining- 
room above stairs, where Sir G. Carteret him- 
self, and I, and his son, at a little table, the 
great table being full of strangers. Here my 
Lady Jem. do promise to come and bring my 
Lord Hinchingbroke and his Lady some day 
this week, to dinner to me, which I am glad of. 
After dinner, I up with her husband, Sir Philip 
Carteret, to his closet, where, beyond expecta- 
tion, I do find many pretty things, wherein he 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 207 

appears to be ingenious, such as in painting, 
and drawing, and making of watches, and such 
kind of things, above my expectation ; though, 
when all is done, he is a sneak, who owns his 
owing me 10?. for his lady two or three years 
ago, and yet cannot provide to pay me. 1 

9th. By coach to White Hall, and there met 
Lord Brouncker : and he and I to the Commis- 
sioners of the Treasury, where I find them 
mighty kind to me, more, I think, than was 
wont. And here I also met Colvill, the gold- 
smith : who tells me, with great joy, how the 
world upon the 'Change talks of me ; and how 
several Parliament-men, viz., Boscawen 2 and 
Major [Lionel] Walden, of Huntingdon, who, 
it seems, do deal with him, do say how bravely 
I did speak, and that the House was ready to 
have given me thanks for it : but that, I think, 
is a vanity." 

A few days later, Pepys is informed, to his 
inexpressible satisfaction, that the Speaker says 
he never heard such a defence made in all his 
life in the House, and that " the Solicitor- 
General do commend me even to envy." On 



i He entered the theatre upon credit. 

ward Boscaewen, M. P. for Truro, ancestor of the pres- 
ent Viscount Falmouth. 



208 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

the 13th, the happy Secretary meets my Lady 
Hinchingbroke, " and she mighty civil : and 
with my Lady Jemimah do resolve to be very 
merry to-morrow at my house. My Lady 
Hinchingbroke I cannot say is a beauty, nor 
ugly : but is altogether a comely lady enough, 
and seems very good-humored. Thence home ; 
and there find one laying of my napkins against 
to-morrow in figures of all sorts : which is 
mighty pretty : and it seems it is his trade, and 
he gets much money by it." Our next extract 
shows how curiously some words have changed 
their signification in the two hundred years 
that have elapsed since Pepys wrote. " This 
morning my wife did, with great pleasure, show 
me her stock of jewels, increased by the ring 
she hath made lately as my Valentine's gift this 
year, a Turky stone set with diamonds : and 
with this, and what she had, she reckons that 
she hath above 1501. worth of jewels of one 
kind or other ; and I am glad of it, for it is 
fit the wretch should have something to content 
herself with." The fashionable wives of the 
year of our Lord 1867 would not take it very 
complacently if their liege lords were to desig- 
nate them as " wretches ; " nor would they be 
well pleased to be fobbed off with a beggarly 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 209 

seven hundred and fifty dollars worth of jewel- 
ry, when at least a dozen fair denizens of the 
good city of Gotham have diamonds alone to 
the value of one hundred thousand dollars. A 
few days later, Pepys goes to the theatre. " I 
was prettily served this day at the play-house 
door : where giving six shillings into the fel- 
low's hand for three of us, the fellow by leger- 
demain did convey one away, and with so much 
grace faced me down that I did give him but 
five, that, though I knew the contrary, yet I 
was overpowered by his so gave and serious 
demanding the other shilling that I could not 
deny him, but was forced by myself to give it 
hi iii." March 20, we have this entry : " Thence 
home, and there in favor to my eyes staid at 
home, reading the ridiculous History of my 
Lord Newcastle, 1 wrote by his wife : which 
shows her to be a mad, conceited, ridiculous 
woman, and he an ass to suffer her to write 
what she writes to him and of him. So to bed, 
my eyes being very bad : and I know not how 
in the world to abstain from reading." Again 
he says, " With my wife to the King's House 

1 A copy of this work was lately sold at an auction sale for 
Charles Lamb alludes to it in ono of the charming 
ys of Elia. 

14 



210 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

to see ' The Virgin Martyr,' * the first time it 
hath been acted in a great while : and it is 
mighty pleasant : not that the play is worth 
much, but it is finely acted by Beck Marshall. 
But that which did please me beyond anything 
in the whole world, was the wind musique when 
the angel comes down ; which is so served that 
it ravished me, and indeed, in a word, did 
wrap up my soul so that it made me really 
sick, just as I have formerly been when in love 
with my wife : that neither then, nor all the 
evening going home, and at home, 1 was able 
to think of anything, but remained all night 
transported, so as I could not believe that ever 
any musique hath that real command over the 
soul of a man as this did upon me : and makes 
me resolve to practise wind musique and to 
make my wife do the like. 

August 31, 1668. To the Duke of York's 
play-house, and saw ' Hamlet,' which we have 
not seen this year before or more ; and mightily 
pleased with it, but above all with Betterton, 
the best part, I believe, that ever man acted. 

September 3. To my bookseller's for ' Hobbs' 
Leviathan,' which is now mightily called for: 
and what was heretofore sold for 8s. I now give 

1 A tragedy, by Philip Massinger. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 211 

14s. at the second band, and is sold for 30s., it 
being a book the Bishops will not let be printed 
again. 

4&h. To the fair to see the play ' Bartholo- 
mew-fair,' with puppets. And it is an excel- 
lent play : the more I see it the more I love the 
wit of it : only the business of abusing the Puri- 
tans begins to grow stale and of no use, they 
being the people that at last will be found the 
wisest. . . . 

23d. At noon comes Mr. Evelyn to me about 
some business with the Office, and there in dis- 
course tells me of his loss to the value of 500£. 
which he hath met with in a late attempt of 
making bricks upon an adventure with others, 
by which he presumed [expected] to have got a 
great deal of money : [on which the shrewd 
Samuel comments], so that I see the most in- 
genious men may sometimes be mistaken. " 

On the 3d of December, Pepys records, 
" Home to dinner, and then abroad again with 
my wife to the Duke of York's play-house, and 
saw 4 The Unfortunate Lovers,' x a mean play I 
think, but some parts very good, and excellently 
acted. We sat under the boxes, and saw the 
fine ladies : among others, my Lady Kerneguy, 

1 A tragedy by Sir William Davcnant. 



212 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

who is most devilishly painted. And so home, 
it being mighty pleasure to be alone with my 
poor wife in a coach of our own to a play, and 
makes us appear mighty great, I think, in the 
world : at least, greater than ever I could, or 
my friends for me, have once expected : or, I 
think, than ever any of my family ever yet 
lived in my memory, but my cousin Pepys in 
Salisbury Court." 

Our next citation from the curious and quaint 
Diary records a domestic infelicity, and Samuel 
naively confesses that Mrs. Pepys was very 
near acting on the legend of St. Dunstan, who, 

" as the story goes, 



Once pulled the devil by the nose 

With red-hot tongs, which made him roar, 

That he was heard three miles or more." 

"■Jan. 12, 1669. . . . This evening I observed 
my wife mighty dull, and I myself was not 
mighty fond, because of some hard words she 
did give me at noon, out of a jealousy at my 
being abroad this morning, which God knows, 
it was upon the business of the Office unex- 
pectedly : but I to bed, not thinking but she 
would come after me. But waking by and by, 
out of a slumber, which I usually fall into pres- 
ently after my coming into the bed, I found she 



MR. SEC RE TAR T PEPYS. 213 

did not prepare to come to bed, but got fresh 
candles, and more wood for her fire, it being 
mighty cold, too. At this being troubled, I 
after awhile prayed her to come to bed ; so, 
after an hour or two, she silent, and I now and 
then praying her to come to bed, she fell out 
into a fury, that I was a rogue, and false to 
her. I did, as I might truly, deny it, and was 
mightily troubled, but all would not serve. At 
last, about one o'clock, she come to my side of 
the bed, and drew my curtain open, and with 
the tongs red hot at the ends, made as if she 
did design to pinch me with them, at which, in 
dismay, I rose up, and with a few words she 
laid them down ; and did by little and little, 
very sillily, let all the discourse fall ; and about 
two, but with much seeming difficulty, come to 
bed, and there lay well all night, and long in 
bed talking together, with much pleasure, it 
being, I know, nothing but her doubt of my 
going out yesterday, without telling her of my 
going, which did vex her, poor wretch ! last 
night, and I cannot blame her jealousy, though 
it do vex me to the heart. 

March 4th. . . . And so I parted, 1 with great 

i From Sir William Coventry in the Tower, sent there for 
challeninn''- the Duke of Buckingham. 



214 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

content, that I had so earlily seen him there ; 
and so going oat, did meet Sir Jer. Smith going 
to meet me, who had newly been with Sir W. 
Coventry. And so he and I by water to Red- 
riffe, and so walked to Deptford, where I have 
not been, I think, these twelve months : and 
there to the Treasurer's house, 1 where the 
Duke of York is, and his Duchess ; and there 
we find them at dinner in the great room, 
unhung ; and there was with them my Lady 
Duchess of Monmouth, the Countess of Fal- 
mouth, Castiemaine, Henrietta Hide 2 (my 
Lady Hinchinbroke's sister), and my Lady 
Peterborough. And after dinner Sir Jer. 
Smith and I were invited down to dinner with 
some of the Maids of Honor, namely, Mrs. 
Ogle, 3 Blake, 4 and Howard, 5 which did me good 

i See it marked in the Plan of Deptford, in Evelyn's Diary. 

2 Henrietta, fifth daughter to the Earl of Burlington, mar- 
ried Lawrence Hyde, afterwards created Earl of Rochester. 

3 Anne Ogle, daughter of Thomas Ogle, of Pinchbeck, in 
Lincolnshire. She was afterwards the first wife of Craven 
Howard (son of Mrs. Howard), brother of her fellow-maid 
of honor. — See Evelyn's Diary. 

4 Margaret Blagge, or Blague, daughter of Colonel Blague, 
and afterwards wife of Sidney Godolphin. Her Life, written 
by Evelyn, needs only to be mentioned here. 

5 Dorothy, the elder daughter of Mrs. Howard. She after- 
wards married Colonel James Graham, of Levens, Keeper of 
the Privy Purse of the Duke of York. Their daughter, Kath- 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 215 

to have the honor to dine with, and look on 
them ; and the Mother of the Maids, 1 and Mrs. 
Howard, 2 the mother of the Maid of Honor of 
that name, and the Duke's housekeeper here. 
Here was also Monsieur Blancfort, 3 Sir Richard 
Powell, 4 Colonel Villiers, 5 Sir Jonathan Tre- 

arine Graham, married her cousin, Henry Bowes Howard, 
fourth Earl of Berkshire and eleventh Earl of Suffolk. 

1 The mother of the maids in the Court of Queen Katharine 
was Bridget, Lady Sanderson, daughter of Sir Edward Tyr- 
rell, Knt., and wife of Sir William Sanderson, Gentleman of 
the Privy Chamber. It is possible, however, that some one 
filled the like office in the household of the Duchess of York. 

- Elizabeth, daughter of Lowthiel, Lord Dundas, wife of 
William Howard, fourth son of the first Earl of Berkshire. 
Her son, Craven Howard, married, first, Anne Ogle, men- 
tioned above; and, secondly, Mary, daughter of George 
Bower, of Elford in Staffordshire, by whom he had Henry 
Bowes Howard, who married Katharine Graham. It was by 
means of Mrs. Howard, who, as housekeeper to the Duke of 
York, resided in the Treasurer's house at Deptford, that 
Evelyn, who lived at Sayes Court, adjoining the Koyal Yard, 
first became acquainted with Mrs. Godolphin, and it is to 
Lady Sylvius, the younger daughter of Mrs. Howard, that he 
addresses her Life. 

3 In 1077 he succeeded to the titles and estates of his father- 
in-law, Sir George Sondes, who, in April, 1076, was created 
Earl of Feversham and Viscount Sondes. As Earl of Fevers- 
ham. Blancfort became of great importance daring the short 
but eventful reign of James II. He died in 1709. 

Richard Powle, of Shottesbrooke, Berks, Master of 
the Horse to the Duchess of York. 

5 Edward Villiers, Master of the Kobes, and Groom of the 
unber to the Duke of York. He was afterwards 
knighted, and is the direct ancestor of the Earls of Jersey. 



216 MR. SECRETARY PEPTS. 

lawny, 1 and others. And here drank most ex- 
cellent, and great variety, and plenty of wines, 
more than I have drank, at once, these seven 
years, but yet did me no great hurt. Having 
dined very merrily, and understanding by 
Blancfort how angry the Duke of York was, 
about their offering to send Saville to the Gate- 
house among the rogues ; and then, observing 
how this company, both the ladies and all, are 
of a gang, and did drink a health to the union 
of the two brothers, and talking of others as 
their enemies, they parted, and so we up ; and 
there I did find the Duke of York and Duchess, 
with all the great ladies, sitting upon a carpet, 
on the ground, there being no chairs, playing 
at ' I love my love with an A, because he is so 
and so : and I hate him with an A, because of 
this and that : ' and some of them, but particu- 
larly the Duchess herself, and my Lady Castle- 
maine, were very w r itty. This done, they took 
barge, and I with Sir J. Smith to Captain 
Cox's ; and there to talk, and left them and 
other company to drink; while I slunk out to 
Bagwell's ; and there saw her, and her mother, 
and our late maid Nell, who cried for joy to see 

i The second baronet of his family, and father of the Bishop 
of Winchester, of the same names. 



MR, SEC RET AR Y PEP YS. 217 

me. So to Cox's, and thence walked with Sir 
J. Smith back to Redriffe ; and so by water 
home, and there my wife mighty angry for my 
absence, and fell mightily out, but not being 
certain of anything, but thinks only that Pierce 
or Knipp was there, and did ask me, and, I 
perceive, the boy many questions. But I did 
answer her ; and so, after much ado, did go to 
bed, and lie quiet all night ; but she had another 
bout with me in the morning, but I did make 
shift to quiet her, but yet she was not fully 
satisfied, poor wretch ! in her mind, and thinks 
much of my taking so much pleasure without 
her ; which, indeed, is a fault, though I did not 
design or foresee it when I went. 

dth. Up, and to the Tower ; and there find Sir 
W. Coventry alone, writing down his Journal, 
which, he tells me he now keeps of the mate- 
rial things ; upon which I told him, and he is 
the only man I ever told it to, I think, that I 
kept it most strictly these eight or ten years ; 
and I am sorry almost that I told it him, it not 
being necessary, nor may be convenient, to 
have it known. Here lie showed me the peti- 
tion he hatb sent to the King by my Lord 
Keeper, which was not to desire any admittance 
to employment, but submitting himself therein 



218 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

humbly to his Majesty ; but prayed the removal 
of his displeasure, and that he might be set 
free. He tells me that my Lord Keeper did 
acquaint the King with the substance of it, not 
showing him the petition ; who answered that 
he was disposing of his employments, and when 
that was done, he might be led to discharge 
him : and this is what he expects, and what he 
seems to desire. But by this discourse he was 
pleased to take occasion to show me and read 
to me his account, which he hath kept by him 
under his own hand, of all his discourse, and 
the King's answers to him, upon the great busi- 
ness of my Lord Clarendon, and how he had 
first moved the Duke of York with it twice, at 
good distance, one after another, but without 
success ; showing me thereby the simplicity and 
reasons of his so doing, and the manner of it ; 
and the King's accepting it, telling him that he 
was not satisfied in his management, and did 
discover some dissatisfaction against him for 
his opposing the laying aside of my Lord 
Treasurer, at Oxford, which was a secret the 
King had not discovered. And really I was 
mighty proud to be privy to this great transac- 
tion, it giving me great conviction of the noble 
nature and ends of Sir W. Coventry in it, and 



MR, SECRETARY PEPYS. 219 

considerations in general of the consequences 
of great men's actions, and the uncertainty of 
their estates, and other very serious considera- 
tions. To the Office, where we sat all the 
morning, and after dinner by coach to my 
cousin Turner's, thinking to have taken up the 
young ladies ; but The. was let blood to-day ; 
and so my wife and I towards the King's play- 
house, and by the way found Betty Turner, 
and Bab., and Betty Pepys staying for us ; and 
so took them all to see ' Claricilla,' which do 
not please me almost at all, though there are 
some good things in it. And so to my cousin 
Turner's, and there find my Lady Mordaunt, 
and her sister Johnson ; 1 and by and by comes 
in a gentleman, Mr. Overbury, a pleasant man, 
who plays most excellently on the flagelette, a 
little one, that sounded as low as one of mine, 
and mighty pretty. Hence with my wife, and 
Bab., and Betty Pepys, and W. Hewer, whom 
I carried all this day with me, to my cousin 
Stradwick's, where I have not been ever since 
my brother Tom died, there being some differ- 
ence between my father and them, upon the 
account of my cousin Scott ; and I glad of this 
opportunity of seeing them, they being good 

1 Her maiden sister. 



220 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

and substantial people, and kind. Here met 
my cousin Roger and his wife, and my cousin 
Turner, and here, which I never did before, I 
drank a glass, of a pint, I believe, at one 
draught, of the juice of oranges, of whose peel 
they make comfits ; and here they drink the 
juice as w^ine, with sugar, and it is very fine 
drink ; but it being new, I was doubtful whether 
it might not do me hurt. Having staid awhile, 
my wife and I back, with my cousin Turner, 
&c, to her house. There we took our leaves 
of my cousin Pepys, who goes with his wife 
and two daughters for Impington to-morrow. 
They are very good people, and people I love, 
and am obliged to, and shall have great pleas- 
ure in their friendship, and particularly in hers, 
she being an understanding and good woman. 

12th, With great content spent all the morn- 
ing looking over the Navy accounts of several 
years, and the several patents of the Treasurers. 
W. Hewer and myself towards Westminster ; 
and there he carried me to Nott's, the famous 
bookbinder, that bound for my Lord Chancel- 
lor's library : and here I did take occasion for 
curiosity to bespeak a book to be bound, only that 
I might have one of his binding. To Grave's 
Inn : and, at the next door, at a cook-shop of 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 221 

Howe's acquaintance, we bespoke dinner, it 
being now two o'clock ; and in the meantime 
he carried us into Grave's Inn, to his chamber, 
where I never was before ; and it is very pret- 
ty, and little, and neat, as he was always. 
And so, after a little stay, and looking over a 
book or two there, we carried a piece of my 
Lord Coke 1 with us, and to our dinner, where, 
after dinner, he read at my desire a chapter in 
my Lord Coke about perjury, wherein I did 
learn a good deal touching oaths, and so away 
to the Patent Office, 2 in Chancery Lane, where 
his brother Jack, being newly broke by running 
in debt, and growing an idle rogue, he is forced 
to hide himself; and "W. Howe do look after 
the Office. Here I did set a clerk to look out 
some things for me in their books, w 7 hile W. 
Hewer and I to the Crown Office, 3 where we 
met with several good things that I most 
wanted, and did take short notes of the dockets, 
and so back to the Patent Office, and did the 
like there, and by candle-light ended. And so 
home, where, thinking to meet my wife with 
content, after my pains all this day, I find her 
in her closet, alone, in the dark, in a hot fit of 

l Coke's Institutes. 2 The Rolls. 

> In the Temple, whore it ip .-till kept. 



222 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

railing against me : but, what with my high 
words, and slighting, I did at last bring her to 
very good and kind terms, poor heart ! 

13th. Up, and to the Tower, to see Sir W. 
Coventry, and with him talking of business of 
the Navy, all alone, an hour, he taking physic. 
And so away to the Office, where all the morn- 
ing, and then home to dinner, with my people, 
and so to the Office again, and there all the 
afternoon till night, when comes, by mistake, 
my cousin Turner and her two daughters, which 
love such freaks, to eat some anchovies and 
ham of bacon with me, instead of noon, at din- 
ner, when I expected them. But, however, I 
had done my business before they come, and so 
was in good humor enough to be with them, and 
so home to them to supper, being pleased to see 
Betty Turner, which hath something mighty 
pretty. Bat that which put me in good humor, 
both at noon and night, is the fancy that I am 
this day made a Captain of one of the King's 
ships, Mr. Wren having this day sent me the 
Duke of York's commission to be Captain of 
The Jerzy, in order to my being of a Court- 
martial for examining the loss of The Defy- 
ance, and other things ; which do give me 
occasion of much mirth, and may be of some 



MB. SECRETARY PEPYS. 223 

use to me, at least I shall get a little money for 
the time I have it ; it being designed that I 
must really be a Captain to be able to sit in this 
Court. They staid till about eight at night, 
and then away, and my wife to read to me, and 
then to bed in mighty good humor, but for my 
eyes. 

April 30th. Up, and by coach to the coach- 
maker's : and there I do find a great many la- 
dies sitting in the body of a coach that must be 
ended by to-morrow : they were my Lady Mar- 
quis of "Winchester, 1 Bellassis, 2 and other great 
ladies, eating of bread and butter, and drinking 
ale. I to my coach, which is silvered over, 
but no varnish yet laid on, so I put it in a way 
of doing ; and myself, about other business, and 
particularly to see Sir AY. Coventry, with whom 
I talked a good while to my great content ; and 
so to other places — amoug others, to my tailor's : 
and then to the belt-maker's, where my belt 
cost me dos. of the color of my new suit : and 

i Isabella, daughter of William Howard, Viscount Stafford, 
third wife to John Powlett, fifth Marquis of Winchester. 

2 John Lord Bellassis was thrice married : first, to Jane, 
daughter of Sir Robert Roteler, of Woodhall, Herts; second- 
ly, to Ann. daughter of Sir Robert Crane, of Chilton, Suffolk; 
thirdly, to Lady Anne Powlett, daughter of the above-named 
Marquis of Winchester (by his second wife, Lady Honora de 
Burgh), and who is the person referred to by Pepys. 



224 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

here, understanding that the mistress of the 
house, an oldish woman in a hat, hath some 
water good for the eyes, she did dress me, mak- 
ing my eyes smart most horribly, and did give 
me a little glass of it, which I will use, and 
hope it will do me good. So to the cutler's, 
and there did give Tom, who was with me all 
day, a sword cost me 12s. and a belt of my 
own ; and sent my own silver-hilt sword a-gild- 
ing against to-morrow. This morning I did visit 
Mr. Oldenburgh, 1 and did see the instrument 
for perspective made by Dr. Wren, 2 of which I 
have one making by Browne ; and the sight of 
this do please me mightily. At noon my wife 
came to me at my tailor's, and I sent her home, 
and myself and Tom dined at Hercules Pillars ; 
and so about our business again, and particu- 
larly to Lilly's, the varnisher, about my prints, 
whereof some of them are pasted upon the 
boards, and to my full content. Thence to the 
frame-maker's, one Norris, in Long Acre, who 
showed me several forms of frames, which were 
pretty, in little bits of mouldings, to choose pat- 

1 Henry Oldenburgh, Secretary of the Royal Society. 

2 A description of an instrument invented many years be- 
fore, by Sir Christopher Wren, for drawing the outlines of any 
object in perspective, is given in the Abridgment of Phil. 
Trans. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 225 

terns by. This done, I to my coachmaker's, 
and there vexed to see nothing yet done to my 
coach, at three in the afternoon ; but I set it in 
doing, and stood by till eight at night, and saw 
the painter varnish it, which is pretty to see 
how every doing it over do make it more and 
more yellow : and it dries as fast in the sun a* 
it can be laid on almost ; and most coaches are, 
now-a-days, done so, and it is very pretty when 
laid on well, and not too pale, as some are, even 
to show the silver. Here I did make the work- 
men drink, and saw my coach cleaned and oiled ; 
and staying among poor people there in the 
alley, did hear them call their fat child Punch, 
which pleased me mightily, that word being be- 
come a word of common use for all that is thick 
and short. 1 At night home, and there find my 
wife hath been making herself clean against to- 
morrow ; aud late as it was, I did send my 
coachman and horses to fetch home the coach 
to-night, and so we to supper, myself most 
weary with walking and standing so much, to 
see all things fine against to-morrow, and so to 

i " Puncheon, the vessel, Fr. poinQon, perhaps so called 
from the pointed form of the staves; the vessel bellying- out 
in the middle, and tapering towards each end : and hence 
punch (£. e., the lar^e belly), became applied, as Pepya records, 
to anything thick or short." — Richardson's Dictionary. 

15 



226 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

bed. Meeting with Mr. Sheres, to several 
places, and, among others, to buy a periwig, 
but I bought none ; and also to Danere's, where 
he w^as about my picture of Windsor, which 
is mighty pretty, and so will the prospect of 
Rome be. 

May 1st, Up betimes. Called by my tailor, 
and here first put on a summer suit this year ; 
but it was not my fine one of flowered tabby 
vest, and colored camelott tunique, because it 
was too fine with the gold lace at the bands, 
that I was afraid to be seen in it ; but put on 
the stuff suit I made the last } 7 ear, which is now 
repaired ; and so did go to the Office in it, and 
sat all the morning, the day looking as if it 
would be foul. At noon home to dinner, and 
there find my wife extraordinary fine, with her 
flowered tabby gown the*t she made two years 
ago, now laced exceeding pretty ; and indeed, 
was fine all over ; and mighty earnest to go, 
though the day was very lowering ; and she 
would have me put on my fine suit, which I did. 
And so anon we went alone through the town 
with our new liveries of serge, and the horses' 
manes and tails tied with red ribbons, and the 
staudards gilt with varnish, and all clean, and 
green reins, that people did mightily look upon 



MB. SECRETARY PEPYS. 227 

us ; and, the truth is, I did not see any coach more 
pretty, though more gay than ours, all the clay. 
But we set out, out of humor — I because Betty, 
whom I expected, was not come to go with us ; 
and my wife that I would sit on the same seat 
with her, which she likes not, being so fine : 
and she then expected to meet Sheres, which 
we did in the Pell Mell, and, against my will, I 
was forced to take him into the coach, but was 
sullen all day almost, and little complaisant : 
the day being unpleasing, though the Park full 
of coaches, but dusty and windy, and cold, and 
now and then a little dribbling of rain ; and 
what made it worse, there were so many hack- 
ney-coaches as spoiled the sight of the gentle- 
men's ; * and so w T e had little pleasure. But 
here was W. Batelier and his sister in a bor- 
rowed coach by themselves, and I took them 
and we to the lodge ; and at the door did give 
them a syllabub, and other things, cost me 12s., 
and pretty merry. And so back to the coaches, 
and there till the evening, and then home, leav- 
ing Mr. Sheres at St. James's Gate, where he 
took leave of us for altogether, he being this 
night to set out for Portsmouth post, in his way 

i This is a little too much, considering that Samuel had so 
recently set up his own carriage. 



228 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

to Tangier, which troubled my wife mightily, 
who is mighty, though not, I think, too fond of 
him. 

2d. (Lord's Day.) Up, and by water to 
White Hall, and there visited my Lord Sand- 
wich, who, after about two months' absence at 
Hinchinbroke, came to town last night. I saw 
him, and he was very kind ; and I am glad he 
is so, I having not wrote to him all the time, my 
eyes indeed not letting me. Here with Sir 
Charles Harbord, and my Lord Hinchinbroke, 
and Sidney, and we looked upon the picture of 
Tangier, designed by "Charles Harbord, and 
drawn by Dancre, which my Lord Sandwich 
admires, as being the truest picture that ever he 
saw in his life : and it is indeed very pretty, 
and I will be at the cost of having one of them. 
Thence with them to White Hall, and there 
walked out the sermon, with one or other ; and 
then saw the Duke of York, and he talked to 
me a little ; and so away back by water home. 
After dinner, got my wife to read, and then by 
coach, she and I, to the Park, and there spent 
the evening with much pleasure, it proving 
clear after a little shower, and we mighty fine 
as yesterday, and people mightily pleased with 
our coach, as I perceive ; but I had not on my 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 229 

fine suit, being really afraid to wear it, it being 
so fine with the gold lace, though not gay. 

3d. Up, and by coach to my Lord Brounck- 
er's, where Sir G. Carteret did meet Sir J. 
Minnes and me, to discourse upon Mr. Deer- 
ing's business, who was directed^ in the time of 
the war, to provide provisions at Hamburgh, by 
Sir G. Carteret's direction; and now Sir G. 
Carteret is afraid to own it, it being done with- 
out written order. But by our meeting, we do 
all begin to recollect enough to preserve Mr. 
Deering, which I think, poor, silly man ! I shall 
be glad of, it being too much he should suffer 
for endeavoring to serve us. Thence to St. 
James's, where the Duke of York was playing 
in the Pell Mell ; and so he called me to him 
most part of the time that he played, which 
was an hour, and talked alone to me ; and, 
among other things, tells me how the King will 
not yet be got to name anybody in the room of 
Pen, but puts it off, for three or four days ; 
from whence he do collect that they are brew- 
ing something for the Navy, but what he knows 
not ; but I perceive is vexed that things should 
go so, and he hath reason ; for he told me that 
it is likely they will do in this as in other things 
— resolve first, and consider it and the fitness 



230 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

of it afterwards. Thence to White Hall, and 
met with Creed, and discoursed of matters ; 
and I pereeive by him that he makes no doubt 
but that all will turn to the old religion, for 
these people cannot hold things in their hands, 
nor prevent its coming to that ; and by his dis- 
course he fits himself for it, and would have my 
Lord Sandwich do so, too, and me. After a 
little talk with him, and particularly about the 
ruinous condition of Tangier, which I have a 
great mind to lay before the Duke of York, be- 
fore it be too late, but dare not, because of his 
great kindness to Lord Middleton, we parted, 
and I homeward ; but called at Povy's, and 
there he stopped me to dinner, there being Mr. 
Williamson, the Lieutenant of the Tower, 1 Mr. 
Child, and several others. And after dinner, 
Povy and I together to talk of Tangier ; and he 
would have me move the Duke of York in it, 
for it concerns him particularly, more than any, 
as being the head of us ; and I do think to do it. 
4:th. Walked with my wife in the garden, 
and my Lord Brouncker with us, who is newly 
come to W. Pen's lodgings ; and by and by 
comes Mr. Hooke ; and my Lord, and he, and 
I into my Lord's lodgings, and there discourse 

1 Sir John Robinson. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 231 

of many fine things in philosophy, to my great 
content. 

Dth. Up, and thought to have gone with 
Lord Brouncker to Mr. Hooke this morning be- 
times ; but my Lord is taken ill of the gout, 
and says his new lodgings have infected him, he 
never having any symptoms of it till now. So 
walked to Gresham College, to tell Hooke that 
my Lord could not come ; and so left word, he 
being abroad. To St. James's, and thence, 
with the Duke of York, to White Hall, where 
the Board waited on him all the morning : and 
so at noon with Sir Thomas Allen, and Sir Ed- 
ward Scott, 1 and Lord Carlingford, to the Span- 
ish Ambassador's, 2 where I dined the first time. 
The Olio not so good as Sheres'. There was 
at the table himself and a Spanish Countess, a 
good, comely, and witty lady — three Fathers 
and us. Discourse, good and pleasant. And 
here was an Oxford scholar in a Doctor of 
Law's gown, sent from the College where the 
Embassador lay, when the Court was there, to 
salute him before his return to Spain. This 
man, though a gentle sort of scholar, yet sat 
like a fool for want of French or Spanish, but 

1 Sir Edward Scott, made LL.D. at Oxford, 1677. 

2 The Conde de Dona. 



232 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

knew only Latin, which he spoke like an Eng- 
lishman, 1 to one of the Fathers. And by and 
by he and I to talk, and the company very 
merry at my defending Cambridge against Ox- 
ford : and I made much use of my French and 
Spanish here, to my great content. But the 
dinner not extraordinary at all, either for quan- 
tity or quality. Thence home to my wife, and 
she read to me the epistle of Cassandra, which 
is very good indeed ; and the better to her, be- 
cause recommended by Sheres. So to supper, 
and to bed. 

Gth. Up, and by coach to Sir W. Coventry's, 
but he gone out. I by water back to the Office, 
and there all the morning : then to dinner, and 
then to the Office again, and anon with my wife 
by coach to take the air, it being a noble day, 
as far as the Green Man, 2 mightily pleased with 

1 i. e., with the English pronunciation. 

2 Probably on Stroud Green, and known by the name of 
Stapleton Hall, originally the residence of Sir Thomas Sta- 
pleton, of Gray's Court, Oxon, Bart. The building, on which 
were his initials, with those of his wife, and the date 1609, 
was afterwards converted into a public-house, with the sign 
of the Green Man, and a century ago had in the front the fol- 
lowing inscription : — 

" Ye are welcome all 
To Stapleton Hall." 
A club, styling themselves " The Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and 
Corporation of Stroud Green," formerly met annually at this 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 233 

our journey, and our condition of doing it in 
our own coach, and eo home, and to walk in the 
garden, and so to supper and to bed, my eyes 
being bad with writing my Journal, part of it, 
to-night. 

28th. To St. James, where the King's being 
with the Duke of York prevented a meeting of 
the Tangier Commission. But, Lord ! what a 
deal of sorry discourses did I hear between the 
King and several Lords about him here ! but 
very mean, methought. So with Creed to the 
Excise Oflice, and back to White Hall, where, 
in the Park, Sir G. Carteret did give an ac- 
count of his discourse lately, with the Commis- 
sioners of Accounts, who except against many 
things, but none that I find considerable : among 
others, that of the Officers of the Navy selling 
of the King's goods, and particularly my pro- 
viding him with calico flags, which having been 
by order, and but once, when necessity, and the 
King s apparent profit justified it, as conform- 
able to my particular duty, it will prove to my 
advantage that it be enquired into. Neverthe- 
less, having this morning received from them a 
demand of an account of all monies within 

place, which occasioned a scene similar to that of a country 
wake or fair.— Lewis's Hist, of Islington. 



234 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

their cognizance, received and issued by me, I 
was willing, upon this hint, to give myself rest, 
by knowing whether their meaning therein 
might reach only to my Treasurership for Tan- 
gier, or the monies employed on this occasion. 
I went, therefore, to them this afternoon, to 
understand what monies they meant, where 
they answered me by saying, c The eleven 
months' tax, customs, and prize-money,' with- 
out mentioning, any more than I demanding, 
the service they respected therein ; and so, 
without further discourse, we parted, upon 
very good terms of respect, and with few 
words, but my mind not fully satisfied about 
the monies they mean. With my wife and 
brother spent the evening on the water, carry- 
ing our supper with us, as high as Chelsea, 
making sport with the Western bargees, 1 and 
my wife and I singing, to my great content. 

29th. The King's birth-day. To White 
Hall, where all very gay ; and particularly the 
Prince of Tuscany very fine, and is the first 
day of his appearing out of mourning, since he 
came. I hear the Bishop of Peterborough 2 
preach but dully ; but a good anthem of Pel- 

1 Still a cant term for the Thames bargemen. 

2 Joseph Henshaw ; ob. 1678. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPTS. 235 

ham's. Home to dinner, and then with my 
wife to Hyde Park, where all the evening ; 
great store of company, and great preparations 
by the Prince of Tuscany to celebrate the night 
w T ith fire-works, for the King's birth-day. And 
so home. 

30th. (Whitsunday.) By water to White 
Hall, and thence to Sir W. Coventry, where all 
the morning by his bed-side, he being indis- 
posed. Our discourse was upon the notes I 
have lately prepared for Commanders' Instruc- 
tions ; but concluded that nothing will render 
them effectual, without an amendment in the 
choice of them, that they be seamen, and 
not gentlemen above the command of the Ad- 
miral, by the greatness of their relations at 
Court. Thence to White Hall, and dined with 
Mr. Cheffinch and his sister ; whither by and 
by came in Mr. Progers and Sir Thomas Allen, 
and by and by, fine Mrs. Wells, who is a great 
beauty ; and there I had my full gaze upon her, 
to my great content, she' being a woman of 
pretty conversation. Thence to the Duke of 
York, who, with the officers of the Navy, made 
a good entrance on my draught of my new In- 
structions to Commanders, as well expressing 
his general views of a reformation among them, 



236 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

as liking of my humble offers towards it. 
Thence being called by my wife, we to the Park, 
whence the rain sent us suddenly home. 

31st. Up very betimes, and continued all the 
morning with W. Hewer, upon examining and 
stating my accounts, in order to the fitting my- 
self to go abroad beyond sea, which the ill con- 
dition of my eyes, and my neglect for a year or 
two, hath kept me behind-hand in, and so as to 
render it very difficult now, and troublesome to 
my mind to do it ; but I this day made a satis- 
factory entrance therein. Had another meeting 
with the Duke of York, at White Hall, on yes- 
terday's work, and made a good advance : and 
so, being called by my wife, we to the Park, 
Mary Batelier, and a Dutch gentleman, a friend 
of hers, being with us. Thence to c The 
World's End,' a drinking-house by the Park ; 
and there merry, and so home. 

And thus ends all that I doubt I shall be 
ever able to do with my own eyes in the keep- 
ing of my Journal, I being not able to do it any 
longer, having done now so long as to undo my 
eyes almost every time that I take a pen in my 
hand ; and, therefore, whatever comes of it, I 
must forbear : and, therefore, resolve from this 



MB. SECRETARY PEPYS. 237 

time forward, to have it kept by my people in 
lonu" hand, and must be contented to set down 
no more than is fit for them and all the world 
to know ; or, if there be any thing, I must en- 
deavor to keep a margin in my book open, to 
add, here and there, a note in short-hand with 
my own hand. 

And so I betake myself to that course, which 
is almost as much as to see myself go into my 
grave : for which, and all the discomfits that 
will accompany my being blind, the good God 
prepare me ! 

S. P. 

May 31, 16G9." 



As has been already stated by the Secretary, 
failing sight compelled him to abandon his 
Diary ; and having obtained from the King a 
few months' leave of absence, he availed him- 
self of the opportunity to visit France and Hol- 
land, being accompanied in his tour by Mis- 
tress Pepys. Upon this excursion he often 
looks back with lively pleasure in his corre- 
spondence and conversation. Soon after his 
return to England, he had the misfortune to 
lose his wife, who died at his house in Hart 
Street, London, leaving no issue. She had 



238 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

been ill only a few days. On the 3d of March, 
1670, Pepys writes to a friend : — 

" I beg you earnestly to believe that nothing 
but the sorrow and distraction I have been in 
by the death of my wife, increased by the sud- 
denness with which it pleased God to surprise 
me therewith, after a voyage so fall of health 
and content, could have forced me to so long a 
neglect of my private concernments ; this being, 
I do assure you, the very first day that my 
affliction, together with my daily attendance on 
other public occasions of his Majesty's, has 
suffered me to apply myself to the considering 
any part of my private concernments ; among 
which, that of my doing right to you is no 
small particular : and therefore, as your charity 
will, I hope, excuse me for my not doing it 
sooner, so I pray you to accept now (as late as 
it is) my hearty thanks for your multiplied 
kindness in my late affair at Aidborough ; * and 
in particular your courteous providing of your 
own house for my reception, had I come down ; 
the entertainment you were also pleased to pre- 
pare for me, together with your other great 
pains and charges in the preserving that inter- 
est which you had gained, in reference to his 

1 His unsuccessful election contest. 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 239 

Royal Higlmess's and my Lord Howard's desire 
on my behalf: in all which I can give yon good 
assurance, that not only his Royal Highness 
retains a thankful memory of your endeavors 
to serve him, but I shall take upon me the pre- 
serving it so with him that it may be useful to 
you when you shall have any occasion of asking 
his favor. The like I dare promise you from 
my Lord Howard, when he shall return ; and 
both from them and myself make this kinduess 
of yours, and the rest of those gentlemen of the 
town who were pleased to concur with you, as 
advantageous both to yourself and them, and to 
the Corporation also, as if the business had 
succeeded to the best of our wishes : and this I 
assure you, whether I shall ever hereafter have 
the honor of serving them in Parliament or not, 
having no reason to receive any thing with dis- 
satisfaction in this whole matter, saving the 
particular disrespect which our noble master, 
the Duke of York, suffered from the beginning 
to the end, from Mr. Duke and Captain Shipp- 
man, who, 7 doubt not, may meet with a time 
of seeiug their error therein. But I am ex- 
tremely ashamed to find myself so much out- 
done by you in kindness, by your not suffering 
me to know the expense which this business 



240 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

has occasioned you ; which I again entreat you 
to let me do, esteeming your pains (without 
that of your charge) an obligation greater than 
I can foresee opportunity of requiting, though I 
shall by no means omit to endeavor it. So 
with a repetition of my hearty acknowledgments 
of all your kindness, with my service to your- 
self and lady, and all my worthy friends about 
you, I remain, 

Your obliged friend and humble Servant, 

S. P." 

The illness of his wife prevented Pepys from 
attending the election at Aldborough, and his 
absence was probably the cause of his being 
defeated. In January, 1673, however, he was 
elected a member of Parliament for another 
borough. In the summer of the same year, 
the Duke of York having resigned all his em- 
ployments, upon the passing of the Test Act, 
the King called Pepys into his own service as 
Secretary for the affairs of the Navy. Ten 
years later, he accompanied Lord Dartmouth 
on the expedition against Tangier ; at the same 
time availing himself of the opportunity of 
making excursions into Spain. From this ex- 
pedition Pepys returned in the spring of 1684 ; 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 241 

and the King having assumed the office of High 
Admiral, he was, " by the Royal commands 
neither sought for nor foreseen, brought to him 
expressly by Lord Dartmouth from Windsor," 
constituted Secretary for the affairs of the Ad- 
miralty, which office he continued to fill during 
the remainder of the reign of the Stuarts. The 
curious circumstance respecting the religion of 
Charles I., related by Evelyn, rests chiefly upon 
the authority of our immortal diarist, to whom 
King James himself had communicated it. 
We are also told that when the latter was sit- 
ting to Sir Godfrey Kneller for his picture, 
intended as a present to Pepys, news coming of 
the Prince of Orange having landed, the King, 
with the utmost composure, desired the painter 
to proceed and finish the portrait, that his good 
friend the Secretary might not be disappointed. 
Upon the accession of William and Mary, 
Pepys lost his official employments, retiring to 
private life, and the enjoyment of literary so- 
ciety and pursuits. Of his munificence as a 
patron of literature, the large number of books 
dedicated to him furnish ample testimony ; and 
in the preface to Willoughby's Ilistoria Pis- 
cium, he is justly styled " Ingeuuarum Artium 
et Kruditorum Fautor et Patronus Eximius," 
1G 



242 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

as having contributed no fewer than sixty plates 
to that valuable work. In the year 1690, 
Pepys was arrested on«a charge of being too 
favorable to the exiled James, but was soon 
released ; ten years later, after having published 
" Memoirs relating to the State of the Navy," he 
abandoned his city residence, and retired to the 
repose and quiet of the country, seeking shelter 
under the roof of an old friend whose seat was 
at Clapham. Here, in this pleasant retreat, 
surrounded by attached relatives and friends, 
he occupied the greater part of his time in 
reading his favorite authors, and in correspond- 
ing with Evelyn, Charlett, and other eminent 
men. His brother diarist, Evelyn, who sur- 
vived him for three years, in one of his letters, 
dated January, 1702-3, says, " Thus, what I 
would wish for myself and all I love, as I do 
Mr. Pepys, should be the old man's life as de- 
scribed in the distich, which you deservedly 
have attained : — 

1 Vita, Senis, libri, domus, hortus, lectus, amicus, 
Vina, Nepos inquis, mens hilaris, pietas.' 

In the mean time, I feed on the past conversa- 
tion I once had in York Buildings, and starve 
since my friend has forsaken it." After a lin- 



MX. SECXETARY PEPYS. 243 

gering illness, Samuel Pepys, F. R. S., Secre- 
tary to the Admiralty in the reigns of Charles 
II. and James II., the prince of diarists, passed 
away, May 26, 1703, to "those temples not 
made with hands." George Hickes, D. D., de- 
prived of the deanery of Worcester for refusing 
to take the oaths to King William, writes to 
Dr. Charlett, June 5, " Last night, at 9 o'clock, 
I did the last office for your and my good 
friend, Mr. Pepys, at St. Olaves Church, 1 where 
he was laid in a vault of his own making, by 
his wife and brother. The greatness of his 
behavior, in his long and sharp trial before his 
death, was in every respect answerable to 
his great life : and I believe no man ever went 
out of this world with greater contempt of it, 
or a more lively faith in every thing that was 
revealed of the world to come. I administered 
the Holy Sacrament twice in his illness to him, 
and had administered it a third time but for a 
sudden fit of illness that happened at the ap- 
pointed time of administering of it. Twice I 
gave him the absolution of the Church, which 
he desired, and received with all reverence and 
comfort, and I never attended any sick or 
dying person, that died with so much Christian 

1 In Hart Street, London. 



244 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

greatness of mind, or a more lively sense of 
immortality, or so much fortitude and patience, 
in so long and sharp a trial, or greater resigna- 
tion to the will, which he most devoutly ac- 
knowledged to be the wisdom of God : and I 
doubt not but he is now a very blessed spirit 
according to his motto, 4 Mens cujusque, is 

EST QUISQUE.'" 

Evelyn, in his Diary, uses the following lan- 
guage in writing of his deceased friend and 
fellow-diarist : — 

" May 26th. This day died Mr. Sam Pepys, 
a very worthy, industrious, and curious person, 
none in England exceeding him in knowledge of 
the navy, in which he had passed through ail the 
most considerable offices, Clerk of the Acts and 
Secretary of the Admiralty, all which he per- 
formed with great integrity. When K. James 
II. went out of England, he laid down his office, 
and would serve no more, but withdrawing him- 
self from all public affairs, he lived at Clapham 
with his partner Mr. Hewer, formerly his clerk, 
in a very noble house and sweet place, where 
he enjoyed the fruit of his labors in great pros- 
perity. He was universally beloved, hospita- 
ble, generous, learned in many things, skilled 
in music, a very great cherisher of learned men, 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 245 

of whom he had the conversation. His library 
and collection of other curiosities were of the 
most considerable, the models of ships especially. 
Besides what he published of an account of the 
navy, as he found and left it, he had for divers 
years under his hand the History of the Navy, 
or Navalia, as he called it : but how far ad- 
vanced, and what will follow of his, is left, I 
suppose, to his sister's son Mr. Jackson, a 
young gentleman whom Mr. Pepys had edu- 
cated in all sorts of useful learning, sending 
him to travel abroad, from whence he returned 
with extraordinary accomplishments, and wor- 
thy to be heir. Mr. Pepys had been for near 
40 years so much my particular friend, that 
Mr. Jackson sent me complete mourning, desir- 
ing me to be one to hold up the pall at his 
magnificent obsequies, but my indisposition 
hindered me from doing him this last office. " 

By his will, our annalist bequeathed to Mag- 
dalen College, Cambridge, an accumulation of 
literary treasures. Of these, the most conspic- 
uous portion was his library. Fortunately for 
posterity, although Pepys was quite a Sir Pier- 
cie Shafton in his way, and never formed a 
complete opinion of any man without due con- 
sideration of his clothes, he was something of a 



246 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

bibliomaniac, albeit he had not the disease to 
the same extent as South ey's friend, whom, the 
poet relates, one day showed him his small and 
curious hoard. " Have you ever seen a copy 
of this book?" asked the bibliomaniac, with 
every volume that he placed in Southey's 
hands ; and w 7 hen the poet replied that he had 
not, always rejoined, with a look and tone of 
triumphant delight, " I should have been ex- 
ceedingly sorry if you had ! " Pepys, with no 
inconsiderable expenditure of time and money, 
gathered together a remarkably good and inter- 
esting collection, comprising not only many 
curiosities of early typography, but copious 
specimens of the fugitive literature of his day. 
Six large folio volumes, for instance, are filled 
with broadsides, ballads, and songs of every 
description, each of which is now almost unique : 
while the marketable value of the whole 
has been computed by thousands of dollars. 
From this collection Bishop Percy chiefly de- 
rived his Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. 
Pepys thought there was " nothing like leath- 
er," and so his literary treasures were all en- 
cased in the choicest bindings in vogue at the 
close of the seventeenth century. Early in life, 
he resolved on no account to fill more than a 



V 
MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 247 

certain number of "presses/' i. e., bookcases; 
and accordingly, as lie acquired any valuable 
volume fitted for a niche in liis library, he 
weeded his shelves of its least dignified or rare 
specimens to make way for his new acquisi- 
tions. At the beginning of each year, too, 
with the aid of Mistress Pepys and her maid, 
he was wont to " set them up " afresh ; and we 
are favored in the Diary with particular records 
of the appearance which the "presses" made 
at any one period compared with the show of 
the previous year. This choice and curious 
collection, thus gleaned together in the course 
of thirty years, our friend Samuel at length 
bequeathed to Magdalen College, on conditions 
which included its preservation in the selfsame 
plight in which he had left it. The " presses " 
were to be kept in an apartment exclusively 
devoted to themselves, and their contents were 
neither to be increased nor diminished by a 
single volume, but were to remain forever in 
their original state and form. As lie willed, so 
it has been. In a certain room of what was 
once called "the new building" of Magdalen 
College, and on the exterior wall of which the 
visitor could read the inscription, " Biblio- 
theca Pepysiana," was this unique collec- 



248 MR, SECRETARY PEPYS. 

tion for many years deposited, until, at a 
recent period, it was removed to a handsome 
apartment in the lodge lately erected for 
the master of the college. There, among the 
videnda of the university, Pepys's valuable 
library and fine collection of prints, paintings, 
and manuscrips may now be seen, the " presses" 
and their quaint contents being just as they 
were left by the annalist in 1703, the former in 
all the glory of black mahogany and glazed 
doors, the latter in their original bindings and 
in their original order. 

In the Pepysian library were six large vol- 
umes filled with writing in short hand, which 
remained undeciphered, if not unnoticed, till 
some fifty years ago, when they attracted the 
attention of persons competent to estimate their 
value, and the cipher was soon after submitted 
to a Cambridge scholar for interpretation. 
The contents of the half dozen volumes were 
soon translated, and were found to be a perfect 
treasure trove, being nothing less than a faithful 
and particular Diary of Samuel Pepys's life 
and conversation from the 1st of January, 
1660, to the 31st of May, 1669. The Diary, 
or rather a large selection from it, was first 
published in 1825, in five volumes, and the 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 249 

speedy sale of two large editions proved how 
accurately its interest had been estimated by its 
editor, Richard Lord Braybrooke, who has col- 
lateral claims on the blood of Mr. Secretary 
Pepys. In 1848, a third edition, considerably 
enlarged, was published, followed ere long by a 
fourth, in the preface to which the editor says, 
" The Memoirs of Samuel Pepys, and the His- 
tory of his Short-hand Diary, have been so 
long well known to the literary world, that the 
fourth edition of the work comprised in the fol- 
lowing pages can hardly require any formal or 
lengthened introduction. It should, however, 
be explained, that as the edition of 1848, which 
had found more general favor than its prede- 
cessors, was already out of print, the publisher 
9 strongly urged that the book should again be 
brought forth under my auspices, and I have 
ventured to accede to his request. So true is 
the French couplet, — 

'On revient toujours, 
A ses premiers amours.' " 

In 1854 another edition appeared ; another was 
published four years later ; and in 1865 the 
seventh edition, from which our extracts are 
taken, was issued. 



250 MR, SECRETARY PEPYS. 

To the diarists of past days the world is in- 
debted for much of its information ; and cer- 
tainly no other class of writings have added so 
much to what Dr. Johnson calls u the gayety 
of mankind." Among the ancients, we have 
the Memorabilia of Xenophon, the Commenta- 
ries of Caesar, and the Journal of Nearchus, 
Alexander's admiralty works which may be 
said to belong to this order of composition. 
Concerning the heroic age of modern Europe, 
we have the Memoirs and Chronicles of Corn- 
mines and Froissart, the romances of chivalry, 
and the invaluable records contained in the 
humorous and more familiar tales of Geoffry 
Chaucer. For our knowledge of the period 
over which the last of the Stuarts reigned, we 
are chiefly indebted to John Evelyn, Samuel 
Pepys, Thomas Eugge, author of the Diurnall, 
from which we have frequently quoted in our 
notes, and to the memoirs and journals of Lord 
Clarendon, Mrs. Lucy Hutchinson, and Lady 
Fanshawe. Among these very considerable 
memorials of that age, none will compare with 
the Diary of the quaint and garrulous Samuel. 
No autobiography of which we have any 
knowledge makes the least perceptible approach 
to it. Rousseau's Confessions will bear no 



MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 251 

kind of comparison. Perhaps the reflections of 
Silvio Pellico in his prison supply a somewhat 
nearer match ; but the two productions are 
hardly homogeneous enough to be compared. 
It is certainly one of the pleasantest books we 
have ever taken up, and we trust the possessors 
of this little brochure will be of the same opin- 
ion after having perused the examples which 
have been segregated from the worthy Secre- 
tary's four volumes. We have quoted liberally, 
because we were anxious that our readers 
should share with us the pleasure of looking 
upon so admirable a picture of one of the most 
interesting periods of English history, — the 
first nine years of Charles II.'s reign, — and 
because, having spoken so highly of its many 
beauties, we are bound in a manner, as the 
lawyers say, " to instruct our averments." 

We cannot better take leave of our annalist 
and his inimitable Diary than in the words of 
Francis Jeffrey, who, in one of his delightful 
essays, says, u And now we have done with 
Mr. Pepys. There is trash enough, no doubt, 
in his journal — trifling facts and silly observa- 
tions. But we can scarcely say that we wish 
it a page shorter, and are of the opinion that 
there is very little of it which does not help us 



252 MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. 

to understand the character of his times and 
his contemporaries better than we should ever 
have done without it, and make us feel more 
assured that we comprehend the great histori- 
cal events of the age, and the people who bore 
a part in them. Independent of instruction 
altogether, too, there is no denying that it is 
very entertaining thus to be transported into 
the very heart of a time so long gone by, and 
to be admitted into the domestic intimacy, as 
well as the public councils, of a man of great 
activity and circulation in the reign of Charles 
II. Reading this book seems to us to be 
quite as good as living with Mr. Samuel 
Pepys in his proper person ; and though the 
court scandal may be detailed with more grace 
and vivacity in the Memoires de Grammont, 
we have no doubt that even this part of his 
multifarious subject is treated with far greater 
fidelity and fairness before us, while it gives us 
more clear and undistorted glimpses into the 
true English life of the times — for the court 
was substantially foreign — than all the other 
memorials of them that have come down to our 
own." 



INDEX. 



The references to the pages include the matter contained in the 
Notes as well as the Text. 

A. 

Abbot of Crowland, 10. 

" Advice to a painter," 134. 

Albemarle, Duchess of, 46. 

Albemarle, George Monk, Duke of, canes an officer, 15; 

marches on London, 24; mentioned, 40, 62, 64, 111, 141, 150, 

154, 168, 203. 
Alexander the Great, 14. 
Allen, Rebecca, mentioned, 87, 88. 
Allen, Sir Thomas, mentioned, 26, 231, 235. 
Axe Yard, residence of Pepys, 16. 



Bancroft, George, 0. 

Barebones. Praise God, 43. 

Batelier, Mary, 236. 

Battin, Sir William, mentioned, 87, 102, 125, 173. 

Beaufort, Duke of, fined, 3S. 

Becke, Betty, 105. 

Bellassis, Sir II., fights duel, 182. 

Berkeley, Lord, mentioned, 53, 207. 

Betterton, the actor, 210. 

Bibliotheca Pepysiana described, 247. 

(253) 



254 INDEX. 

Bicldulph, Sir Theophilus, 125. 

Blackfriars Theatre, 100. 

Blair, James, M. C, dramatic critic, 181. 

Blot, Pierre, 23. 

Bohemia, Queen of, 69. 

Bradshaw, John, president High Court of Justice, 20. 

Braybrooke, Richard, Lord, 249. 

Brouncker, Lord, mentioned, 163, 165, 169, 230. 

Buckingham, Duke of, pardoned, 190. 

Burke, Edmund, 63. 

Burnet, Sir H., 112. 

Burnett, Dr., mentioned, 116, 138. 

Byrd, Thomas, 50. 

C. 

Caesar's Commentaries, 250. 

Carlyle, Thomas, 9. 

Carr, Sir Robert, 183. 

Carteret, Lady Elizabeth, mentioned, 140. 

Carteret, Sir G., mentioned, 124, 125, 140, 145, 146, 153, 157, 206, 
229, 233. 

Carteret, Philip (afterwards Sir Philip), son of Sir George, 
married to Lady Jemimah Montagu, mentioned, 140, 141, 142, 
143; his marriage, 146 ; mentioned, 206. 

Castlemain, Lady. See Duchess of Cleveland. 

Catullus, quotation from, 89. 

Cavaliers, The, 48. 

Chalmers, Thomas, 63. 

Charlett, Dr., mentioned, 242; letter to, 243. 

Charles the First mentioned, 32; lines composed on execu- 
tion of, 33. 

Charles the Second mentioned, 11, 64 ; inscription on, 67; men- 
tioned, 74; visits the fleet, 118; sickness, 120; mentioned, 
125, 190 ; reign of, 251. 

Chaucer, Geoffrey, alluded to, 120, 250. 

Chichester, Bishop of, 84. 

Chivalry, romances of, 90, 250. 

Clarendon, Edward Hyde, Earl of, mentioned, 98, 250. 



INDEX. 255 

Clerke, Clement, mentioned, 66, S3. 

Cleveland, Duchess of, mentioned, 89, 91 ; portrait of, 121. 

Cobden, Richard, anecdote related by, 99. 

Collier's Dictionary, 12. 

Conde, Prince of, in battle, 104. 

Corbet, Mrs., an actress, 176. 

Coventry, Sir William, mentioned, 81, 105, 174 j confined in the 

Tower, 213 ; mentioned, 232, 235. 
Creed, John, his marriage, 70 ; relates stories, 115. 
Crewe, Lord, mentioned, 21, 40, 52, 141. 
Crisp, Sir Nicholas, 44. 
Cromwell, Oliver, death of, 14; mentioned, 15 j his soldiers, 

24; his opinion of Monk, G4. 
Cromwell, Richard, mentioned, 28, 49. 



Dagenhams, seat of, described, 140. 

Dale, Rev. John, alluded to, 9. 

Davenant's cc Unfortunate Lovers," 211. 

Dawley House described, 161. 

De Foe, Daniel, alluded to, 132. 

De Grammont, Memoirs of, 252. 

Denmark, King of, 157. 

De Retz, Cardinal, quoted, 32. 

De Ruyter, Admiral, mentioned, 110, 126. 

D'Esquier, Monsieur, mentioned, 82. 

Dewitt, Admiral, alluded to, 157. 

Diarist, The, mentioned, 6, 7, 250. 

Dog Tavern mentioned, 59. 

Dorset, Lord, quoted, 74. . 

Downing, Sir George, mentioned, 17, 26 ; return to England, 

83 ; mentioned, 178. 
Dryden, John, the poet, 183. 

E. 

Elizabeth, Queen of England, her writing, 163. 
" Etherege, Sir George, 192. 



256 INDEX. 

Evelyn, John, mentioned, 12 ; visited by Mr. Pepys, 162 j let- 
ter respecting Pepys, 242 ; describes his character, 244. 

Exchange, The Great, alluded to, 67 ; deserted during plague, 
152. 

F. 

Fairfax, Thomas, Lord, mentioned, 16 ; heads the Irish bri- 
gade, 18 ; death, ib. 
Falmouth, Earl of, killed, 134. 
Fanshawe, Lady, mentioned, 97, 250. 
Fiennes, Major, 101. 
Fitch, Colonel Thomas, 33. 
Fleetwood, Charles, 16. 
Ford, Sir Richard, mentioned, 126, 127, 173. 
Forfarshire farmer, anecdote of, 64. 
Foster, John, alluded to, 63. 
Froissart's Chronicles, 250. 



G. 

Gauden, Sir G., mentioned, 172, 185, 200. 
Gerard, Lord, mentioned, 194, 195. 
Goldsmith, Oliver, alluded to, 63. 
Gondolas described, 90. 
Goring House mentioned, 84. 
Gwyn, Nell, mentioned, 88, 91. 



H. 

Hall, Robert, alluded to, 63. 
Harley, Major Edward, 79. 
Hartlib, Nan, marriage of, 84. 
Haselrigge, Sir Arthur, 25. 
Haynes, Joseph, comedian, 205. 

Henrietta Maria, Dowager of Charles the First, mentioned, 
10, 91. 



INDEX. 257 

Henry, Duke of Gloucester, 70. 

Hiekes, George, D. D., present at Pepys's funeral, 243; de- 
scribes same, 243. 
Hind, Mr., a Cambridge student, 10. 
Historian, The, 6. 
Hodges, Thomas, 100. 
Holland, Captain Philip, 59. 
Honiwood, Michael, Dean of Lincoln, 94, 116. 
Horse-guards on fire, 177. 
Hume, David, quoted, 91. 
Hutchinson, Mrs. Lucy, 250. 

Hewer, TVilliam, mentioned, 198, 200, 219, 223, 236, 244. 
Hewson, Colonel John, 30. 



I. 
Illinois farmer, story of, 99. 

J. 

Jackson, Andrew, mentioned, 181. 

Jackson, Mr. (marries Paulina Pepys), 195. 

Jackson, John (Pepys's nephew and heir), 245. 

Jefferson, Joseph, Sen., 181. 

Jefferson, Miss, an actress, 181. 

Jeffrey, Lord Francis, quoted, 251. 

Johnson, Dr. Samuel, love of eating, 98 ; quoted, 250. 

Jordan, Sir Joseph, his gallantry, 135. 

Joyce, Kate, tried for murder, 187. 



K. 

Kirton, Thomas, the bookseller, 46. 
Kneller, Sir Godfrey, alluded to, 86, 98. 

Knipp, Mrs., the actress, mentioned, 87, 88, 168, 171, 176; 
sings with Pepys, 177 ; mentioned, 205. 

17 



258 INDEX. 



Lamb, Charles, his love of roast pig, 98. 

Lambert, Major-General, mentioned, 16; going to Parliament, 
17; lays down arms, 20 ; declares for Parliament, ib. 

Lambs-wool, a beverage, 180. 

Lawson, Sir John, mentioned, 17 ; mortally wounded, 134. 

Locke, Matthew, the composer, 42. 

London Common Council, 17 ; Mayor and Aldermen of Lon- 
don, 44; bonfires, 45; condition of streets, 109; granaries, 
113; plague, 131; great fire, 171. 

Ludgate Hill mentioned, 45. 



M. 

Macaulay, Lord, 8. 

Magdalen College mentioned, 10, 247. 

Manchester, Earl of, alluded to, 53. 

Mandeville, Lord, alluded to, QQ. 

Marlborough, Earl of, 134. 

Marvel, Andrew, quoted, 68. 

Mary, Queen of Scots, her writing, 163. 

Massinger's " Virgin Martyr," 210. 

Miles Coffee House alluded to, 27. 

Miller, Lieutenant-Colonel, mentioned, 36. 

Milton, John, alluded to, 98. 

Montagu, Edward, mentioned, 69 ; death of, 155. 

Montagu, George, alluded to, 57. 

Montagu, Jemimah, alluded to, 21; her sickness, 26; at St. 
Giles Church, 121 ; mentioned, 139, 140, 142, 144 ; her mar- 
riage, 146. 

Montagu, Sir Edward. See Sandwich, Earl of. 

Montrose, Marquis of, his character, 32 ; lines on his execu- 
tion, ib. ; on that of Charles the First, 33. 

Moore, Frank, at Newmarket, 19 ; mentioned, 51, 83. 

Moreland, Sir Samuel, mentioned, 72. 

Morley, Colonel, mentioned, 25. 

Motley, J. Lothrop, alluded to, 9. 



ixdex. 259 



N. 



Nearchus, journal of, 250. 

Newcastle, History of Lord, 209. 

New York aldermen, 3S. 

New York councilrnen, 38. 

New York ladies, 208. 

Norris, frame-maker, 224. 

North, Sir Dudley, mentioned, 53, 83. 

Norton, Joyce, Pepys's cousin, 94. 



Oldenburgh, Henry, 224. 

Overbury, Mr., 219. 

Overton, Major-General, mentioned, 56. 

Opdam, Admiral, mentioned, 74, 82 ; his death, 134. 

Orange, Prince of, mentioned, 69, 241. 



P. 

Palmer, Mrs. See Cleveland, Duchess of. 
Penn, Sir William, mentioned 82, 90, 111. 
Penn, William (the founder of Pennsylvania), attends theatre 

with Pepys, 195; in Parliament, 198. 
Pellico, Silvio, 251. 
Pepys family mentioned, 10. 
Pepys, Elizabeth, wife of Samuel, mentioned, 10 ; races in the 

Park, 37; kills turkeys, 39 ; valentine, 47; mentioned, 01, 86, 

87, 91, 105, 119, 122, 123, 109, 196, 197, 204; her jewels, 20S ; 

domestic infelicity, 212; mentioned, 220, 222, 226, 227; 

death, 238. 
Pepys, John, mentioned, 21. 

Pepys, Paulina, mentioned, 59 ; marries Mr. Jackson, 196. 
Pepys, Poger (cousin of Samuel), mentioned, 1S4, 194, 220. 



260 INDEX. 

Pepys, Samuel, the prince of journalists, 9; his Diary, ib. ; 
birth, education, and marriage, 10; his connections, 11; his 
Diary, 12; notice of, 13; residence, 16; goes to Exeter 
Chapel, 18; gives dinner party, 22; visits Miss Montagu, 
26; calls on Mr. Crewe, ib. ; at Miles Club, 27; to Westmin- 
ster, 28; falls in a ditch, 29; buys Hebrew grammar, 31; 
sings his song, 32; witnesses street fight, 35 ; visits White- 
hall, 3G ; goes to Westminster, 39 ; writes to Lord Montagu, 
40 ; at Star Tavern, 44 ; visits Magdalen College, 49 ; returns 
to London, 51; accompanies Lord Montagu to St. James, 
58 ; at the Dog Tavern, 59; resolves to go to sea, 61 ; pre- 
pares for voyage, 67 ; at the Hague, 69 ; by coach to Schev- 
eling, 72 ; walks out with Lord Montagu, 73 ; sees Admiral 
Opdam, 74 ; kisses the king's hand, 76 ; visits tomb of Van 
Tromp, 78; return to England, 83; at Whitehall Chapel, 
ib. ; attends wedding party, 84 ; goes to the theatre, 85 ; 
fondness for flirting, 87; kissing Mrs. Knipp and others, 
88 ; visits Dr. Williams, 90 ; destroys manuscripts, 92 ; at- 
tends brother's funeral, 93; at the King's theatre, 100; 
attends the Tangier committee, 101; calls on Duke of 
York, 102; to Trinity House, 104; with Mrs. P. to Hack- 
ney, 105; visits Kensington, 106; at Greenwich, 108; on 
'Change, 110; with W. Howe, 113; visits Palace at White- 
hall, 114; at Lord Sandwich's, 115; his dog killed, 116; in 
fear of robbery, 117 ; excursion to Greenwich, 119 ; buys 
books, 120 ; dines with Lady Sandwich, 121 ; goes to Barnett, 
122 ; takes a cold, 123 ; presents eagle to Mrs. Turner, 124 ; 
to Tower Hill, 125 ; sees comet, 126 ; visits Lady Sandwich, 
128; his affairs at close of year, 129; writes letter about 
plague, 132 ; describes victory over the Dutch, 134; new suit 
of clothes, 138; plague, 139; arranges a marriage, 140; at- 
tends wedding, 146; kisses the bride, 148; presents ring to 
Mrs. P., 152; to Sheerness, 153; calls on Duke of Albemarle, 
158; at the Tower, 159; removes to Woolwich, 161; visits 
Evelyn, 162 ; remarks on marriage, 164 ; angry about a maid, 
165; settling accounts, 160; appointed Treasurer for Tan- 
gier, ib. ; dictates instructions to pursers, 168; gives a 
party, 169; Twelfth Night, 171; about London fire, 172; at 



IXDEX. 26 1 

Mrs. Knipp's party, 170; Christmas dinner, ISO 3 kissing 
ladies, 185 ; quarrels with Sir W. Penn, 180 ; to the theatre, 
198; prepares a speech, 107; allusions to his success, 201; 
" another Cicero," 202 ; calls on Duke of York, 203 ; at the 
theatre, 204 ; defrauded at the play-house, 200; sees " Ham- 
let," 210; with Evelyn, 211; domestic infelicity, 212; to Dept- 
ford, 214; dines with distinguished party, ib. ,• trouble with 
Mrs. P., 217; calls on Sir W. Coventry, ib. ; at his cousin 
Stradwick's, 219; dines at Gray's Inn, 221 ; more domestic 
difficulties, 222; commissioned Captain in the navy, 222 ; 
purchase of a coach, 223; new suits, 226; drives out with 
Mrs. P.. 227; visits Earl Sandwich, 228; in Pall Mall, 229; 
dines at Povy's, 230; with the Duke of York to Whitehall, 
231; hears Bishop of Peterborough, 234; settling accounts, 
236; conclusion of Diary, 237; goes abroad, ib. ; death of 
Mrs. P., 238; letter to a friend", ib. ; elected to Parliament, 
240; accompanies expedition to Tangier, ib. ; retires to pri- 
vate life, 241 ; publishes Memoirs of the Navy, 242 ; illuess 
and death, 243 ; account of, ib. ; Evelyn, notice of, 244 ; 
Pepys's will, 245; bequeaths his library to Magdalen Col- 
lege, ib. ; great value of, 246 : his Diary, 248 ; mentioned, 
250, 251, 252. 

Percy, Bishop, referred to, 246. 

Pett, Sir Peter, mentioned, 71, 79, 80. 

Pickering, Edward, mentioned, 74, 75. 

Pickering, John, alluded to, 75, 83. 

Pierce, Mrs. (la belle), mentioned, 71, 87, 177, 205. 

Pierce, James, surgeon, mentioned, 29, 31. 

Piersou, Dr., mentioned, 94. 

Plague, the, mentioned, 131, 132, 139. 

" Poems on state affairs " quoted, 134, 135. 

Povy, Thomas, M. P., 159. 

Porter, Thomas, fights duel, 182. 

Prescott, William H., 9. 

Prettyman, Lady, 176. 

Princess Royal, the, 75. 

Procter, William, death of, 147. 

Pye, Sir Robert, mentioned, 41. 



262 INDEX. 



B. 



Reynolds, Edward, D. D., alluded to, 51. 

Richmond, Duchess of, mentioned, 91. 

Robsart, Amy, mentioned, 163. 

Roder, Mynheer, mentioned, 84. 

Rousseau's Confessions, 250. 

Rugge's Diurnal quoted, 68. 

Rugge, Thomas, 250. 

Rupert, Prince, mentioned, 101, 102, 103, 111, 134. 



S. 

St. Dunstan, legend of, 212. 

St. John, Lord, favors free Parliament, 40. 

St. Michael, Elizabeth. See Mrs. Samuel Pepys. 

St. Brides Church, 93. 

Sandwich, Earl of, mentioned, 11 ; appointed to command 
fleet, 51; goes to St. James, 58; mentioned, 72, 73, 74, 81, 
82, 104, 111; visited by king and queen, 118; his gallantry, 
137; mentioned, 141, 228. 

Sandwich, Lady, mentioned, 116, 121, 128. 

Schlosser, the historian, 8. 

Scott, Thomas, mentioned, 43. 

Scott, Sir Walter, anecdote of, 60 ; referred to, 98. 

Scott, Sir Edward, LL. D., 231. 

Shafton, Sir Piercie, 245. 

Shakespeare, William, 120. 

Southey, Robert, quoted, 246. 

Sovereign of the Seas, the, 155. 

Soyer, Alexis, alluded to, 23. 

Spaulding, Captain, mentioned, 82. 

Spillman, Sir Harry, 116. 

Stapleton Hall described, 232. 

State, the condition of, 16. 



INDEX. 263 



Strand Bridge, London, alluded to, 45. 

Swakeley House described, 159. 

Sweden, Charles Gustavus, king of, his death, 60. 



T. 

Tangier, picture of, 228. 

Temple Bar mentioned, 45. 

Teviot, Lord, killed at Tangier, 99 ; manner of his death, 

100. 
Thiers, the historian, 9. 
Thurloe, John, mentioned, 52. 
Turner, Mrs., mentioned, 36, 37, 136, 168, 220. 
Tuscany, Prince of, 235. 



Yane, Sir H., mentioned, 43; sent out of London, 47. 
Van Tromp, Admiral, epitaph on, 78. 
" Yieux Pen " mentioned, 111. 
Yillars, Colonel Edward, 215. 
Yiner, Sir Robert, 159. 



W. 

Wells, Mrs., a great beauty, 235. 
Whittington, Captain, mentioned, 76. 
William and Mary alluded to, 11, 241. 
Williams, Dr., mentioned, 89. 
Windham, Mr., killed in battle, 155. 
Wood, John, mentioned, 10. 
Wren, Sir Christopher, 224. 
Wright, Lady, mentioned, 141, 143. 



264 INDEX. 

X. 

Xenophon's Memorabilia mentioned, 250. 



Yelverton, Sir H., mentioned, 52. 

York, Duke of, created High Admiral, 75 j mentioned, 77 f 81, 

89, 92, 104, 125, 190, 203, 214 ; playing in Pall Mall, 229. 
York, Duchess of, mentioned, 85, 92, 190, 214. 



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